Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Today has been a shit day for Izuku. First one of his bullies threw his analysis journal into the fountain and ruined most of it. His teacher outed his plans to go to UA and told him he couldn’t do it because no one wanted someone with a villain’s quirk as a hero. Then he got caught up in a villain attack twice and couldn’t use his quirk because of the bullshit laws on quirk use, and Kacchan also got attacked by the same villain. But what really takes the cake was All Might telling him he couldn’t be a hero and left him there on the rooftop. 

He was absolutely furious, and after he and Kacchan were saved by none other than fucking All Might, Izuku was absolutely done with everyone. He dragged Kacchan into his house, sat them both on the couch, and called Shouto over to rant about his shit day. 

“Do you wanna know what he even said to me? He told me to be realistic because someone with a quirk like mine doesn’t belong in heroics!” Izuku fumed, watching as Kacchan and Shouto scowl at what they were hearing. 

“Fucking All Might told you that?” Kacchan replied, tiny explosions popping in his palms. “Sounds like bullshit to me, you got the perfect quirk for heroics! Stupid All Might.” 

“If you wanted me to, I could get nii-san to kill All Might and no one would ever know,” Shouto added jokingly, but there was a tiny glint in his eyes which made the other two think differently. 

Izuku let out a small chuckle. As upset as he was, hanging out with his friends did make him feel a bit better. 

“But what if I wanted to do that by myself?” He replied with a sharp smile. 

“You would have to let us join you too then shitnerd. Can’t let you have all the fun,” Kacchan teased, playfully shoving Izuku off the couch. 

Then footsteps were heard headed towards the living room and Izuku was greeted with the rough voice of his dad. 

“Hey there green bean. I couldn’t help but overhear you and your friends talking about the number one hero, and I agree with Katsuki, it would be a delightful idea. Of course your brother is willing to join us, Shouto. Maybe you could invite your father too, it has been a while since Enji and I sat down for a nice chat. Perhaps he and I could have a chat over All Might’s ashes, how does that sound?” Hisashi snickered, small puffs of smoking coming out the corners of his mouth. 

The three kids all smiled innocently at Izuku’s dad and nodded along to what he was saying. 

“Of course Midoriya-san, I will definitely be telling my father about this when he gets home, I’m sure he would love to have a chat about this with you. He would obviously love hearing about how the number one hero insulted his honorary son as well as telling him to give up his dream.” 

“I would appreciate that Shouto. Say, let me send a formal invitation to your family. I am sure Touya would love hearing about this too,” replied Hisashi, making his way into the kitchen. “As much as I want to stay to slander All Might, I am going to get started on making dinner. Katsuki and Shouto are free to stay for dinner if they want to. I’m making katsudon tonight, my little green bean has had a rough day and deserves a little break,” winked the dark-haired man. 

“I’m fine dad,” Izuku rolled his eyes with exaggerated fake annoyance. To be fair, he didn’t mind the fact that his dad cared so much. At times he was a bit overbearing, but it can’t be helped since he used to go overseas for his job and missed the early parts of Izuku’s life before he quit and went back to Japan. 

“I know you’re fine my little broccoli, but it always helps to have tasty food to brighten up your mood. Now, go talk to your friends and have fun,” his dad replied, putting on an apron. 

“I will dad,” Izuku grinned. His dad always did know how to make him feel better through his silly nicknames and carefree attitude. 

He turned back to his friends who were gently smiling back at him. 

“So, are we going to kill All Might or what?” Kacchan asked, raising an eyebrow up and letting out small explosions to emphasize his point. 

“Actually, I have a better idea. I am going to become a hero to spite All Might and show him that quirks don’t matter. Then I’ll take the number one spot from him when the time is right,” Izuku replied, a mischievous glint was in his eyes. 

“I like the sound of that, but how are you going to do it?” Shouto questioned, shifting into a more comfortable position by laying his head in Kacchan’s lap. Since when did he get back on the couch?

“Get off of me you reject Canadian flag,” Kacchan replied, but didn’t make a move to push Shouto off. “Anyways, do it ‘Zuku. I wanna see the fucking look on that bastard’s face when you end him.” 

Izuku grinned at his friends and from that day on, he swore to follow through on his plan. 

Chapter Text

The next day, which was thankfully a weekend, Izuku headed to his family’s training ground with Kacchan after lunch to start their training for U.A’s entrance exam. It was still a couple of months away, but they needed as much practice as they could get to stand out from their competition. They had already spent their entire lives training for UA since the moment they manifested their quirks. It also helped that they would occasionally train under Endeavor which put them at an advantage over everyone else. Although Kacchan and Izuku had to push themselves a lot farther because they were going to take the regular exam rather than go through recommendations like Shouto. 

Izuku or Kacchan could've taken the recommendation exam since Touya would've recommended them, most likely Kacchan because their quirks were kind of similar, but Kacchan wanted more competition to prove that he was the best without any extra advantages. Izuku didn't take the recommendation exams so he could rub it in everyone's faces that a quirk like his could get him into the hero course. 

"Hey dumbass, don't get distracted," Kacchan shouted, quickly snapping Izuku out of his thoughts, but not quick enough for him to think about dodging the punch that hit him square in the jaw. 

"Ouch. Sorry Kacchan, I was just thinking about the entrance exam," Izuku stated, rubbing his jaw which hurt like a bitch. Yep, there was definitely going to be a bruise there tomorrow. 

"Why are you even thinking about that? Are you worried we won't pass?" Kacchan replied, wrapping his arm around Izuku's shoulders. 

"It's nothing, Kacchan. I'm just thinking about taking the regular exams instead of the recommendations."

Kacchan rolled his eyes. "Don't stress about it nerd. You're gonna beat those shitty extras anyways and I'll be right there to join you except I'm going to be the one taking the number one spot." 

"As if I'll let you one-up me. I'll destroy you, respectfully," Izuku smirked, tossing off Kacchan's arm. "I wanna get in some quirk training today too, Kacchan. First one who gets pinned down or restrained loses. Are you down?" 

The sweet smell of burnt caramel coming off of Kacchan's hands gave him the answer and they both quickly ran into their normal positions. 

Kacchan cackled, launching himself at Izuku. "Damn nerd, like hell I'd let you one-up me. Come on, let me see what you can do, and don’t hold back!” 

"Wouldn't dream of it, Kacchan." 

Ducking the attack, Izuku put his hands on the ground and activated his quirk to make a giant wall between him and Kacchan. Then he reshaped the ground into wrapping itself around Kacchan to trap him. The blonde had been expecting this though and used his explosions to destroy the incoming ground before it could reach him. 

Damn. Izuku thought as Kacchan started getting closer. Keeping distance between the two of them would be completely useless since Izuku couldn't use his quirk long-range against Kacchan since he would blow everything to pieces, so he had to close the gap and counter. 

He waited until the last second before the blonde could use his quirk to attack him. As soon as Izuku could feel the heat against his skin, raising the hairs on his neck, he moved out of Kacchan's explosion and reached his hand out to disassemble the explosive boy's tank top and to reassemble it into a restraint around his body. 

Kacchan stumbled and lost his balance. He didn’t expect Izuku to use his quirk on him like that, but it wasn’t like he was upset. He was definitely not upset. Not. At. All. 

Okay, maybe he was a little bit upset because he should’ve seen that coming. 

“It looks like I’m the winner here, Kacchan. You’ve been restrained, which means you’re out,” Izuku teased, sticking his tongue out. 

“Yeah yeah, whatever. You just got lucky that I didn’t want to destroy my tank top because if I did, I would’ve totally gotten out and beat you into the ground.” 

“Whatever you say Kacchan, you’re just making excuses because you lost.”

Kacchan scowled, trying to wiggle out of his restraints. “Shitnerd. I. Will. Murder. You,” punctuation each word for emphasis.

“Uh-huh. Keep telling yourself that. You know you love me too much to kill me Kacchan. Come on, let me fix your tank top so we could fight some more unless you’re too tired to,” Izuku replied smugly, touching his hand to the dark-colored fabric and undoing what he did to it to turn it back into Kacchan’s tank top. 

Standing up and giving his own wrist a few rubs, Kacchan gave him a giant grin. “Don’t test me ‘Zuku. Also, like hell I’m tired. I won’t stop until one of us can’t move.”

Izuku gave him a smile back with the same amount of fire. They both resumed their battle stances and began fighting as soon as Izuku used his quirk on the ground below them. 

Both of them went at it for a while until Kacchan got too dehydrated to create any more sweat and Izuku started to get too tired from quirk overuse. They both felt proud of themselves for going on for so long because by the time they were done, the sun had already begun to set and it was time for dinner. 

Izuku and Kacchan lazily dragged themselves over to Izuku’s house for dinner. He and Kacchan were going to have a sleepover anyway, so Kacchan didn’t have to drag himself home. 

Opening the door to his house, both of the boys were greeted with the mouth-watering scent of his mom’s spicy curry.

Both of them looked at each other sharing the same look and ran into the kitchen to get some. Kacchan had always liked spicy food, he also always praised Izuku’s mom’s spicy curry to the sun because he swore that it was the best curry to ever be made.

On the other hand, spice was an acquired taste to Izuku, he never liked spicy foods, but it grew on him after so many years of hanging out with Kacchan. Izuku’s dad also liked a fair amount of spicy food and was a master at making them too, which Kacchan also praises to the sun. 

“Hi mama,” Izuku greets, walking into the kitchen where his mom is stirring the pot of curry. 

Kacchan follows in behind him and also greets his mom. “Hi Auntie.” 

“Katsuki, Izuku! How are you boys? Did training go well today?” Izuku’s mom replied, looking away from the pot and walking away from it to hug both boys.

“It went well auntie, we did a hella lot of training today.”

“Kacchan! Don’t cuss!” Izuku exclaimed, giving an accusatory look at the blonde. 

“It’s fine dear. I’ve heard worse words from Mitsuki,” his mom gently chuckled. “Well, I’m glad it went well boys. Here, take a seat, I’ll be done with the curry in a moment. Don’t stress yourself about setting the table either, it has already been set up.” 

“Thank you mama.”

“Okay auntie.”

A new voice was added to the mix. “Hello boys,” Hisashi greeted. 

“Hi dad,” Izuku replied, taking a seat in one of the chairs at the kitchen table. 

Kacchan did the same thing too before he greeted Izuku’s dad. “Hi uncle Hisashi.”

“I have some exciting news for you. I may or may not have pulled some strings yesterday after our very interesting talk about All Might. How would you boys feel about meeting my dear friend and former teacher Nedzu tomorrow? He’s been very interested in meeting the next generation of heroes and he is rather interested in what you two can bring to UA,” Hisashi stated casually like he didn’t just casually mention that he knew and was friends with one of the smartest people? Animal? In the world. 

“That would be amazing dad. Can we!?” exclaimed Izuku, not realizing that he did not take the time to fully process what his dad had said. 

WAIT A MINUTE. HE WAS GOING TO MEET THE PRINCIPAL OF HIS DREAM SCHOOL. 

HE. WAS. GOING. TO. MEET. THE. PRINCIPLE. OF. HIS. DREAM. SCHOOL.

HOLY FUCK!

Chapter Text

Well shit. Izuku definitely didn't think this through at all. He was excited about meeting Principal Nedzu, but he really should've given a lot more thought about his dad's offer. The principle of UA definitely had a reputation outside of being a principle and the stoat wasn't someone you should be messing with. 

One common fact about Nedzu was that he was hard to impress and Izuku clearly didn't think about impressing Nedzu.

Shit . 

He was already knee deep in the grave he dug for himself, so digging a little deeper wouldn't hurt would it? 

Nevermind. Digging himself deeper would definitely ruin his prospects of getting into UA. He was also going to kill Kacchan for leaving him to suffer alone. It technically wasn't the blonde's fault since auntie Mitsuki wanted him to help model for her since her model canceled, but Kacchan didn't have to leave him alone. 

He was deep in thought as he rode the train to UA with his dad. It was nerve wracking to say the least. Izuku fidgeted with the dangling tassel of his bracelet that Kacchan made him when they were kids for 'good luck.' Now all he could do is hope that the bracelet actually was good luck. 

Izuku and his dad rode the train in comforting silence, that is until the train came to a screeching halt. 

"Hey green bean. This is our stop," his dad said gently, tapping his shoulder. 

The younger Midoriya nodded his head and followed his dad off the train.

UA was a short walk away from the train station, and Izuku tried to take that time to calm down his nerves, which only got worse as they approached the giant school. 

His dad cleared his throat. "Are you nervous?"

"Just a bit," Izuku casually replied. 

What a fucking liar.

"That's a lie,” his dad chuckled, shaking his head. 

“But this is nerve-wracking papa. It would’ve been easier if Kacchan or Shouto were here with me,” the green haired boy grumbled, crossing his arms. 

His dad ruffled his hair. “Well what if I told you Shouto is also here today with Enji?” 

Izuku smiled a bit at the comment. “He is? Why is he here?”

“Well, Endeavor wanted to introduce Shouto to Nedzu and meet his future home room teacher,” his dad replied.

Izuku nodded in reply and didn’t say anything else as they approached UA. When the father and son duo got to the large gates, there was a hero escort there ready to take them to Principal Nedzu. 

The hero was a tall man wearing an all black jumpsuit paired with a grey scarf and yellow goggles. 

Hmmm. Grey scarf and yellow goggles. Where had he seen that before? Then it clicked. 

“You’re pro hero Eraserhead!” Izuku exclaimed in awe. He quickly forgot his nerves and started rambling without taking a single breath in between his words. “HowdoesyourscarfworkhowdoesitfloatlikethatintheairdoyougeneratesomekindofmagneticfieldtomakeitfloatlikethatohmygodIcan’tbelieveImetproheroEraserheadyou’rerarelyspottedoutinpubliceverIthinkthatthereisonlyonepublicappearanceyoumadeandthatwasduringyoufightwhenyouwereteamedupwithPresentMic!” 

Eraserhead took a step back and blinked. 

“Izuku, you have to slow down and let the poor man breathe!” His dad teased.

Rosey pink dusted his cheeks and he scratched the back of his head, “oops, sorry.”

Eraserhead cleared his throat before speaking. “Interesting. If you would like, I would certainly be happy to answer some of your questions lat-”

“Yes!” Izuku interrupted, but quickly realized how rude he was being. “I’m so sorry,” he quickly apologized. 

“Anyways, I’m pro hero Eraserhead, and I’m a teacher here at UA, my civilian name is Shouta Aizawa. I will be your escort today. I will take you to Principal Nedzu when you are ready.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Aizawa-san, I’m Hisashi Midoriya and this is my son Izuku. We are ready to go if you are,” his dad replied, bowing. 

“Of course, Midoriya-san. Please follow me,” replied Aizawa, gesturing for them to follow him into the building. 

Izuku tried not to gawk at everything he was seeing. UA’s prestigious reputation definitely lived up to its expectations. He’d catch a quick glimpse of different heroes like Present Mic, Midnight, Lunch Rush, Snipe and even Cementoss. He was practically vibrating with excitement as they passed more heroes. Izuku had so many questions he wanted to ask, but first he’d have to meet Principal Nedzu. 

Speaking of which, the small group of three had stopped at a door. Izuku assumed that this was the entrance to the principal’s office. 

Aizawa gave the door a hard knock twice and waited for a reply before doing anything else. 

“Come in,” a cheery voice chirped from the other side, which led Aizawa to open the large doors. 

The group stepped inside the large office and were immediately greeted by the beady little stare that Principal Nedzu gave them. 

“Salutations, Midoriya-san, Midoriya-kun,” Nedzu greeted. “I hope that it was no trouble getting here on such short notice. Take a seat, and care for some tea?” asked the principal gesturing towards the tea set on his desk. 

“No thank you Nedzu-san,” replied his dad, pulling out a chair from Nedzu’s desk. 

“N-no thank you Principal Nedzu sir,” Izuku stuttered. Damn . He thought he’d stop his stuttering a long time ago, but guess his nerves finally caught up to him over the awe. 

Nedzu nodded. “It’s nice to finally meet you Midoriya-kun, I’ve heard a lot about you. I hear you’re applying to the hero course next spring?”

“Yes sir. It’s a p-pleasure to meet you in person. I am honored to get this opportunity,” he replied slowly, trying not to stutter anymore than he has too. If Kacchan were to see this right now, he’d definitely would be making fun of how much Izuku was struggling. The blonde would probably yell something like ‘get on with it shitnerd. Where’s the confidence from when we shit on All Might go now?’

Nedzu took a sip of his tea. Where did he get that? “No, no Midoriya-kun. The pleasure is all mine. Do you care to tell me your reasons for wanting to go to UA? If you’re anything like your father, you’d certainly be a perfect fit for the school.” 

The green haired boy thought for a moment his motivations. He had two main reasons for becoming a hero. One, was to prove that people with villainous quirks could be heroes and two, was to spite All Might and the rest of hero society. 

“I want to go to UA to become a hero to show the world that even people with villainous quirks can become heroes too!” Izuku replied triumphantly, yep, that was definitely his motivation. 

“Oh? Tell me more about your quirk Midoriya-kun. I’m interested in hearing about it.” 

He took in a deep breath to calm his remaining nerves before he continued. “My quirk is a touch activation quirk named overhaul. For the activation requirements, I only need the tiniest bit of skin contact with my hands. So far I haven’t tried activating overhaul with any other parts of my body, but I have a hypothesis that my quirk can activate with any kind of skin contact. Overhaul allows me to disassemble things on a molecular level, but it also allows me to reassemble them however I want. I can fuse different things together too. I don’t really know the full potential of my quirk yet because I’m forced to wear gloves at all times at school since the teachers and students are afraid that I would use my quirk on them. I have done a lot of training over the years with pro hero Endeavour and Cremation, which has led me to discover some mastery over my quirk,” Izuku rambled. He found that the more he talked about his quirk, the more confident he became. Not to be cocky though, he was just fascinated with quirks, including his own. “So far, my only weakness is that I can only activate my quirk by touching with my hands. I don’t necessarily suffer from quirk exhaustion either, I just get hungrier and more tired the more I use my quirk.” 

“Your insights on your quirk are very interesting Midoriya-kun. Say, I don’t think your quirk is villainous at all, I’m sure Aizawa-sensei here would agree with me, isn’t that right?” Nedzu questioned, looking right in Aizawa’s direction. 

“Yes, Principal Nedzu is right. No quirk is inherently bad, it would be illogical to think that. Quirks are just tools and extensions of ourselves, how we use them determines what is good and what is bad,” Aizawa replies, not missing a single beat. 

He has my respect. Izuku thought. Aizawa-sensei is definitely right about quirks, maybe All Might should take a lesson or two with him.

Izuku’s dad also had a few words to add onto that. “Indeed Aizawa-san is right. Now if only All Might understood that.”

Nedzu’s eyes then showed a sparkle of interest. “Why do you say that Midoriya-san?” 

“Hmm,” Hisashi began, small puffs of black smoke coming out of his mouth. “Let’s just say All Might left my son alone without proper care right after a villain attack and told my son that he couldn’t become a hero because his quirk made him a villain.” 

Aizawa audibly scowled. He knows it wasn’t his place to say anything, but he definitely has an opinion on quirk discrimination, especially as someone who delt with similar comments as the younger Midoriya. 

“If I may say something,” Aizawa started, both Midoriyas turned to his direction, their full attention was on him. “Midoriya-kun, what All Might said to you shouldn’t have ever happened in the first place. Like I had said a few minutes ago, having a certain quirk does not make you villainous and it never will. If All Might had a single brain cell behind all those muscles of his, he would know that.” 

Nedzu nodded in agreement. “Once again, Aizawa-sensei is correct. What All Might did was wrong, and with your best interest in mind, I personally will be giving All Might a good lecture on quirk discrimination the next time I see him. You seem like a very promising student Midoriya-kun, you’d definitely be a better student than your father,” he winked. 

Izuku looked at his dad in confusion. His dad just chuckled and looked shyly away. 

“I guess he didn’t tell you some of the stories during his UA days. Well, if he isn’t going to tell it, I will,” Nedzu laughed. “Back when your father was a student here, he and Endeavor got into a lot of trouble. Did you know during his second year he kept running late so he made a jacket with an internal rocket system to get to class quicker? This one time both he and Endeavor were running late, so both of them decided that it was a brilliant idea to combine Endeavor’s speed with the added power of the jacket. Needless to say, they crashed into class 1-A’s classroom and there is a small dent still in the wall as a reminder to why there are now restrictions on what support items can and can’t be made. Of course I have a few more fond memories to tell you about Midoriya-kun, but I’m afraid that I don’t have the time for them today. I believe that it’s best we wrap up this meeting, however, I have a question before you go, Midoriya-kun.” 

Izuku gulped, there was a 50/50 chance that the invitation would be a good thing, but it could also be the thing that dooms him to damnation. “What is it sir?” 

Nedzu took a sip of tea before continuing. “Your father has mentioned a few times that you have quite the eye for analysis. I am curious to see what you can do, so can you tell me, what have you noticed about me from this short meeting?” 

The question had taken Izuku by surprise, he did notice a few things about the principal, but he didn’t want to make any assumptions that he wasn’t completely sure on. There was one thing he was definitely sure about when it came to Nedzu though. 

“You’re a stoat, but more accurately a chimera between a dog, bear, and mouse,” Izuku replied confidently. 

Nedzu looked stunned, as well as Hisashi and Aizawa. Of all things the little green-haired boy could’ve said, he replied with the one thing they weren’t expecting. He could’ve said that Nedzu had a love for fine tea based on the smell of the entire room. Or even that the stoat was known to be one of the rarest cases of an animal manifesting a quirk which made him one of the smartest beings alive. They certainly did not expect Izuku to name what Nedzu was, in fact, not many people could figure it out until years after they met Nedzu, but Izuku had in fact figured it out within the first hour. 

“That is certainly a pleasant surprise, Midoriya-Kun. You are correct. I must say, I did not expect you to figure it out this early on, but it is impressive. I’ll be looking forward to seeing you next spring for the entrance exam. I do not think you’ll have any trouble passing the entrance exam, and in my personal opinion, it would be such a shame to not have a brilliant mind like yours at UA,” Nedzu laughed, staring straight into Izuku’s eyes. 

“Yes! Of course sir! I will try my best to get into UA!” Izuku replied confidently, bowing his head down. 

“I am glad to hear that Midoriya-kun, now you must excuse me, I have a few matters to attend to. Feel free to explore UA a bit and get to know the staff. I'm sure Aizawa-sensei wouldn’t mind escorting you around the building, isn’t that right?” 

Aizawa nodded in reply and motioned for the father and son duo to get up and follow him for a tour. They said their goodbyes to the principal and were on their way. 

Izuku considered the meeting a success and at least he had something to work hard for in the upcoming months. He was going to go to UA and prove that even people like him could become a hero. 

Unfortunately for Izuku though, he was too deep into thought while following Aizawa that he didn’t notice a purple-haired figure walking towards him which resulted in them crashing into each other and falling. 

What an eventful day.

Chapter Text

“I’m so sorry!” Izuku exclaimed as he got up. “I should’ve watched where I was going and I just didn’t notice that you were there,” he offered his hand to the person he knocked over. 

A warm hand placed itself in his, and Izuku pulled the person up to get a closer look at their face. Strangely enough, the person shared a striking resemblance to Aizawa. A secret love child? Wait, that’s absurd. I've been hanging out with Shouto too much. Izuku thought, shaking the idea from his head.

“Just be careful next time. I’m Hitoshi Shinso,” the purple-haired kid introduced himself. Was that purple hair natural? If Izuku could have green hair, purple didn’t seem that unlikely. Fucking intrusive thoughts. 

Izuku gave Shinso his biggest smile. “I’m Izuku Midoriya, are you a student here?” Shinso did look to be his age, but he didn’t want to assume anything. 

“Nah, I’m training to go here,” Shinso replied, shrugging his shoulders. “How about you? You don’t look like a student.” 

“I’m doing the same thing you are,” said Izuku, bashfully. “I don’t know if I can get in and all, my quirk kinda makes it hard for me. Hey, what’s your quirk?” 

Shinso looked very awkward at the question and before he could open his mouth Izuku interrupted him. 

“Wait! You don’t have to answer if it makes you uncomfortable. Sorry, I’m just super interested in quirks and all,” Izuku laughed stiffly. Wow, first great impression. First, you knock them over and then make them uncomfortable. His mind taunted. 

“Oh uh, my quirk is brainwashing and it just activates when someone verbally responds to what I say. I can control it though! Don’t worry I won’t use it on you, I swear! I guess you wanna stay away from me now and think that I’m a villain or something because my quirk is,” Shinso panicked. I finally meet someone my age and then I go and fuck it up aghhhhhh . 

Except Izuku doesn’t give the response Shinso expected him to. “That’s actually so cool! Your quirk could be so useful for negotiations and you could even end a fight before it even starts! If you are trying to get into the hero course, you’d be a great fit!” the green-haired boy rambles on excitedly. “I guess you probably want to know about my quirk too since you just told me yours.”

Shinso nodded in agreement. 

“Well, you could consider my quirk villainous too. I call it overhaul and it lets me disassemble and reassemble things to whatever I want them to be with just the touch of my hand. Everyone kinda just avoids me for it. Something about them being afraid that I’ll disassemble them or something,” Izuku explained, he trusted Shinso enough to trust him not to pull the discrimination card since their quirks were both categorized as villain quirks. 

“Dude, that’s meta as fuck!,” Shinso replied, which got a chuckle out of Izuku.

“Language, Hitoshi,” Aizawa awkwardly coughed, which made both boys realize that Aizawa and Izuku’s dad were watching this entire conversation play out. 

Shinso blushed. “Sorry.” 

“We should totally train together, Shinso. Our quirks aren’t really that similar, but we both got the same point to prove that quirks are villainous right?” Izuku smiled. Light seemed to radiate off of the green-haired boy, was that sunshine? 

Midoriya is now sunshine boy . Thought Hitoshi. 

“I mean, if you want to, we can. Do you have any combat training? Like not to brag, but I’ve gotten a lot of training in the past few months,” Hitoshi shrugged, trying to brush off his subtle flex. He did get a lot of training in the recent months with Aizawa, which would end up putting him at an advantage for the entrance exam coming up. He doubted that Izuku got as much training as him since the boy looked as thin as a stick, but maybe he was wrong about that.

Izuku scratched his head. “Oh, I have a lot of combat and quirk training combined. I've been training frequently with Endeavor and Cremation whenever I can."

This caught Shinso by surprise because he just blinked in disbelief at Izuku. He definitely didn’t think that the boy would know the number two and twenty heroes. It took him a moment to process the information before he could even speak. 

"Remember to expect the unexpected," Aizawa reminded, with a light chuckle.

"Yeah… dude, that's pretty cool," Shinso complemented with a small laugh, but he was still in shock. 

"Thanks," Izuku flushed. "Do you want to exchange numbers so we could figure out days to train? I'm usually free after school to train and I have a training ground behind my house that me and my friends use if you ever wanted to use that." 

"Oh uh, sure," replied the purple-haired boy, pulling out his phone. "Just put your number in here and we could plan out a time where we're both free." 

Izuku typed in his number on the boy's phone. "That's great! I'm sure we'll work something out, I've kinda been training with the same people my entire life so I could use some extra practice from someone else." 

“Yeah, that would be awesome,” Hitoshi replied. I’m going to get my ass kicked oh my god. He thought. “I guess I should go now, I’m late to training with my mentor” 

“Ah!” exclaimed Izuku. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to distract you!”

“Oh you’re fine. I guess I’ll see you around. I’ll shoot you a text after I finish training. Bye Midoriya!” Hitoshi shouted, running off and down the hall. He’s sure Hizashi wouldn’t mind that he was late by a few minutes especially after learning that Hitoshi made a new friend. Friend? Could he even call Midoriya a friend? 

“Bye Shinso!” Izuku called out, waving goodbye. It was nice meeting someone who was probably his age that didn’t hate him for his quirk. 

Is this what it’s like to make new friends?

Chapter Text

After Shinso left, the tour around UA continued. Izuku knew that there were a lot of pros working at UA and he really wanted to meet all of them. Aizawa-san had been giving them an in depth tour around the building making sure to stop at every location to answer questions. Izuku was trying to pay as much attention as possible, but it was hard just because he was surrounded by so many pros in the building. He was practically vibrating off the walls when the first pro he meets an hour into the tour besides Eraserhead and Principal Nedzu was Present Mic. 

Present Mic was one of his favorite heroes of all time, Izuku would often spend late nights listening to the hero’s radio show to pass the time when he couldn’t sleep. Present Mic had approached their little group first to talk to Eraserhead, but when he noticed Izuku, the tall man greeted him too!

“Hey, little listener!” Present Mic exclaimed enthusiastically. “How are ya? You like the school so far!?” 

Izuku nodded excitedly. “Ohmygodyou’rePresentMic!You’resocoolandIreallyloveyourradioshowIwouldstayupreallylatelisteningtoitwhenIcan’tsleep!” he rambled excitedly not being able to get over the shock that three pro heroes have acknowledged him today. 

Present Mic just smiled at him and gave him finger guns. Green hair and freckles. So this was the boy Hitoshi was talking about earlier. “Glad you like my show, little listener! Are you going to take the upcoming entrance exam?”

“Yes sir! Could you sign my notebook on this page? I made an analysis on your quirk and it would mean a lot to me if you could give it a little look and tell me if I got anything wrong,” Izuku replied, pulling out his quirk analysis journal from his back pocket. He stopped calling his notebooks quirk analysis for the future a long time ago after uncle Enji told him that any information he gets on quirks could be useful at any time and not just in the future. 

“Sure thing!” Present Mic replied, taking the notebook in his hand and reading over the page before signing his name on the empty space. It had taken him a few minutes because there was just so much information on the single page. He was taken aback a bit at how accurate the information was and the fact that the entire page was in English was even more impressive. This kid is a genius! He thought and he just had to let the kid know. “Kid, this is amazing! You got everything right down to my support gear too. This is all in English too which makes this more amazing.” 

Shouta raised his eyebrow at him and peered over his husband’s shoulder to take a look himself and what he saw impressed him too. 

The boy smiled at him bigger and was practically beaming. “You really think so?” he replied shyly. 

“Yeah, little listener. Hey, what’s your name? I want to know it so I can brag to everyone about meeting a rising genius that I am definitely going to teach soon.” Well, Hizashi didn’t need to ask because he already learned the boy’s name from Hitoshi, but it was always polite to ask and it was a nice way to make a connection with the kid. 

“Oh! I’m Izuku Midoriya and I don’t know if I’m getting into UA yet, so you might want to hold off on bragging for a bit,” Izuku jokes. Oh my god. Did I just joke with a pro hero!?

“Well Midoriya, you’re definitely going to get into UA. Have a little confidence in yourself ya dig?” Present Mic replied, giving Izuku another really big smile. He liked this meeting a lot more than he liked the one with All Might. 

Oh right . All Might . Izuku had forgotten that he had met All Might a few days ago. 

Present Mic reminded him of All Might in lots of ways. First, they were both limelight heroes with loud personalities that screamed ‘hey! I’m super optimistic about being a hero!’ except Present Mic had always felt a lot more genuine than All Might. Second, they were both loud blondes.

But those are just the two things he could name off the top of his head without getting super annoyed with thinking about All Might.

Izuku had certainly hoped that Present Mic was different than All Might or else he would need to find another favorite hero. 

"Hey little listener, you good there? You haven't answered my question yet," Mic prodded. 

"Present Mic, can I ask you one more question?" Izuku asked, he knew what he had to ask in order to determine if Present Mic really was a good hero as he put himself out to be. 

"Of course! I could never turn away anyone with a question!" 

"I have a quirk that allows me to disassemble and reassemble things however I want to. It's considered villainous by a lot of people, but do you think I can become a hero even with my quirk?" 

And Present(ation) Mic(hael) did not hesitate in his response. “Yes, you can. If anyone disagrees with you, just send them my way and I’d like to have a one on one chat with them.” 

“I don’t think you could fight All Might,” Izuku mumbled, which fished a small chuckle out of Aizawa and his dad. 

Hizashi did hear what the kid mumbled. Despite his Present Mic persona, Hizashi was not as dumb as most people assumed. He was able to put two and two together about Midoriya and All Might. He didn't have the full context of what happened, but he could only assume with the boy’s question that All Might told him he couldn’t be a hero because of his quirk. 

Now personally, Hizashi never really liked All Might. Sure, he respected the man and all he did to protect Japan as the Symbol of Peace, but the hero had always rubbed him the wrong way. All Might did have a super flashy quirk that made him stand out, but he had always shown more support towards the kids who had similar flashy quirks that were ‘suited for heroism’. That struck Hizashi as odd just because heroism is always more than having a strong or outstanding quirk. Heroism was about being quick-witted, resourceful, cunning, and skilled. He has had his fair share of being a hero without a flashy quirk and all, so to fix it, he made his personality stand out as a boisterous radio show personality. 

For All Might to supposedly tell the kid in front of him that he couldn’t become a hero because of his quirk, Hizashi would personally fight All Might to prove the man wrong. 

“Little listener, let me let you in on a little secret of mine,” Present Mic chuckled, leaning down to get on Izuku’s level. “I never liked All Might anyways and if I see him, it’s on sight,” Mic whispered and gave a small wink as unprofessional as it was, but it drew a little giggle from Izuku. Present Mic is 100% better than All Might. 

In the near future, during his first meeting with Present Mic, he would ‘accidentally’ activate his quirk out of ‘excitement' at meeting the number one hero, but no one needs to know that it wasn’t an accident. Legend has it, Principal Nedzu was laughing sadistically in his office watching it all go down on one of the many cameras he placed. Aizawa also let this one instance slide and didn’t activate his quirk to stop his husband. After all, a little bit of spite never hurt anyone. 

Chapter Text

Present Mic left a little while after and Izuku was very satisfied with meeting the hero. It gave him newfound hope and made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

As the rest of the tour continued, Izuku was able to meet some other pros like Midnight, Snipe, Ectoplasm, and even Recovery Girl! Meeting all of them left the same fuzzy feeling in his body and he asked them the same question that he had asked Present Mic, to which they said he could be a hero despite his quirk. 

Izuku even got to ask Eraserhead a bunch of questions about his quirk just like Eraserhead said he could! He even told Izuku that he would be willing to train him just to prepare him for the entrance exam. He couldn’t believe that one of the best underground heroes wanted to train him! He did have a lot of experience with training with Endeavor, but training all the time with the number two did have its disadvantages. 

Uncle Enji could only teach Izuku so much before he ran out of things to teach. He was taught a lot of hand-to-hand combat from his honorary uncle which helped him with his endurance and strength, however, Izuku wasn't as advanced in his quirk use as he was with combat. It couldn't really be helped too much though. His uncle did have a very different quirk from him, which made it hard to understand its applications. 

The one good thing about knowing the number two hero was that Endeavor had a lot of connections and used them to help Izuku find a teacher who could help train his quirk. He went through several teachers throughout the years either because they are assholes who treated him like shit after they learned about the nature of his quirk, or because they didn't know how to teach him.

In a world where quirks were so different, it was hard to find Izuku a mentor with a similar quirk. His parents had also tried to find him a teacher and even tried to teach him for a while, but they had never had seen a quirk like his. When his quirk first manifested, his parents were beyond confused since no one from both sides of their family had a quirk remotely similar to his. They took him to a doctor specializing in quirk research, who concluded that Izuku’s quirk resulted from a quirk mutation. 

Needless to say, he needed all the help he could get to help train him and his quirk so he just had to take up Eraserhead’s offer. It was also not because he totally wanted an opportunity to analyze the hero up closer. 

When Izuku got home, he immediately went to his phone to text Kacchan and Shouto in their shared group chat to tell them about his day. He told them about meeting Nedzu and all the other pro heroes that worked at UA, Eraserhead’s training offer, and about how he made a new friend. Shouto responded with a weird cat meme that made Izuku snort out loud and that he was slightly disappointed that they didn’t get to see each other because Shouto was at UA too. 

Kacchan replied that he’d still beat Izuku no matter how much training he has, which is just Kacchan's speak for ‘I’m kinda jealous I couldn’t go with you today. Kacchan also said that he wanted to meet Shinso to see if he was worthy of Izuku’s friendship. Translated: He better not be like the assholes at school who like to bully Izuku. 

The three of them had talked for a bit before Kacchan ended the conversation because he had to go to bed at his old man's bedtime. (And no, Izuku and Shouto will never stop teasing Kacchan for that because they were not nerds like Kacchan. Suck it Kacchan.) 

Izuku and Shouto continued texting after Kacchan went to bed. It’s nice having friends . Izuku thought. It was nice having people who didn’t treat him like shit. He didn’t exactly dread going to school the next day, but he wasn’t looking forward to it either. It was just another day of putting up with his bullies' bullshit. He hated going to Aldera, but it was the closest school in his area and he didn’t want to trouble his parents with the bullying. Kacchan was absolutely livid every time someone said shit about Izuku or did anything, but Izuku reassured him that it was fine because ‘I could rock their shit in under a minute if I wanted to.’ Luckily for his bullies, Izuku was pretty forgiving and brushed it off. He only had a year left of middle school anyway, so he could probably tolerate it. Keyword: Probably. However, he was barely keeping his shit together as it is and the whole reason he hasn’t snapped yet is that he is a spiteful little shit who is going to prove everyone wrong about villainous quirks. 

Yep, everyone meet Izuku Midoriya, whose actions are mainly fueled by spite. 

His bullies and teachers were still assholes though, so Izuku did tiny things to inconvenience them. Sometimes he’d use his quirks to make a small indentation in the floor where his bully’s desk was so that if they sat down, the chair would be lopsided on one side. Everyone would turn a blind eye to it though because let’s be honest, Aldrea was kind of a trash dump and was falling apart. It made a lot of sense for the floor to be slightly ruined because of the condition of the school. Other times, Izuku would disassemble notebooks or worksheets when no one was looking, then he’d reassemble it when someone would complain to the teacher, but he’d do it before the teacher could see which led to the teachers thinking that his bullies were lying for attention. (#Gaslight #Gatekeep #Girlboss)

Izuku was a menace to society and god he loved every moment of it. Plus, Kacchan would always help cover him for it and helped him from getting caught since dear Kacchan couldn’t get in trouble or else it would ruin his chances of being a hero. Sometimes, he’d even join Izuku in his shenanigans which made all of Izuku’s little pranks so much more effective and inconvenient for the people involved. Good. As it should be . 

Speaking of which, he was definitely going to up the number of inconveniences for his final year at Aldera. Those fuckers gave him hell for his entire life, it was about time they learned their lesson on what happens when they decide to fuck with Izuku Midoriya.

Which is why he is now laying in bed long after Shouto and Kacchan went to bed plotting against his bullies. He probably should be getting sleep, but it's something he'd always have trouble doing. Izuku tried rolling from side to side to find a comfortable position to sleep, but after about an hour, he gave up. Well, that's unfortunate .

But by whatever graces of the universe, someone else was also up with him and was messaging him multiple times. 

Shinso Hitoshi

> Uh hey. I'm free for training tomorrow if you wanna

> Oh shit

> Sorry I didn't mean to send the message right now

> You're probably sleeping 

Shinso Hitoshi is typing… 

Midoriya Izuku

< Nope. I'm not sleeping lol

< Btw I'm free for training. What time? Wait, you should totally meet my friends. They train with me too! 

Shinso Hitoshi

> Oh

> Sure?? Let me ask my mentor or something. Or you could bring your friends to me lol 

> I'm not sure your friends will like me though ://

Midoriya Izuku is typing… 

Oh god, Hitoshi was so awkward. It was one of the first times anyone had interacted with him with human decency and friendliness. He was definitely not used to this. Hitoshi did not expect that Midoriya was awake either. 

Midoriya Izuku 

< My friends will love you <3

< We're always looking for new people to train with too!! 

< Don't you have school tomorrow too?? It's pretty late now

Shinso Hitoshi

> First of all, you're friends are gonna kick my ass, aren't they? 

> Second of all, I could say the same to you. Don't shorter people need more sleep to grow? 

Midoriya Izuku

< >:(( 

< Shinso! I'm not that short, in fact, I am average height >:(( 

Shinso Hitoshi 

> Whatever you say shortie

> I can barely hear you from up here. 

> How's the weather down there anyways? 

Midoriya Izuku is typing… 

Midoriya Izuku

< I'm going to show you the reason why people fear me. 

< Better sleep with one eye open or else when you wake up, you'll wake up with no kneecaps >:)

Shinso Hitoshi

> *gasps* 

> You wouldn't 

> You can't even reach my kneecaps from there 

Midoriya Izuku is typing… 

Izuku let out a small giggle into the dark of his room. Shinso was fun to talk to. He was a lot different from Kacchan and Shouto, so the nature of their conversation was new and exciting to him. 

Midoriya Izuku

< Don’t test me… 

< I’m coming after you tomorrow during training :DD

Shinso Hitoshi 

> You know what? 

> For someone so short, you are terrifying 

> And for the record, I’m going to retract everything I just said because I want to keep my kneecaps

Midoriya Izuku is typing… 

Midoriya Izuku

< Too late Shinso

< You had your chance :DD

< Start saying your prayers 

Shinso Hitoshi

> Yeahhhh

> I’m just going to go to bed now… 

> Ahahaha 

> Here’s the training ground’s location for tomorrow if you wanted to come to me for training

[Shinso Hitoshi has shared a location. Click to view]

Midoriya Izuku

< Oki Shinso

< Just let me know when you have time for training tomorrow 

< You get to keep your kneecaps for now… but only because I want another friend and training buddy :DD

< Goodnight! 

Shinso Hitoshi 

> Goodnight Midoriya 

Izuku smiled at his phone before he set it down. He was getting pretty tired from talking to Shinso, but he was excited too. It wasn’t every day that he made a new friend, especially one that was blunt as hell and played along with his humor with as much chaotic energy as Izuku. This was nice. 

And feeling the sleep pulling at his eyelids, he did not fight against it and let himself fall into a restful slumber. 

Chapter Text

“You have some nerve showing up to school today!” some green-haired kid from Izuku’s class yelled, slamming him into a locker. “We don’t need a villain like you here.” 

“Screw off. I don’t want to deal with you this morning,” Izuku grunted, shoving back, he had gotten to school early hoping to avoid his classmates, but he didn’t expect one other person to be there. 

Every day at school was like this, some kid or even groups of them would always try to torment him and he’d never fight back because he didn’t need any extra trouble with the school. It was a mild inconvenience if anything, but it didn’t matter too much. Any injury Izuku would get he would just use his quirk to fix it and any external damages to his things could be fixed. He was close to his breaking point though, Izuku has been tormented his entire life since his quirk came in. A lot of his friends left him back then, some started to talk shit and make rumors behind his back, teachers would turn a blind eye to his torment, and a lot of others were too afraid to even interact with him.

Sometimes Izuku wanted to fight back, he wanted to use his quirk to destroy something to show all his bullies and teachers what he was capable of, but it would ruin his chances of getting into UA if it got onto his records. 

Ehhh fuck it. Principal Nedzu could vouch for me, maybe. Uncle Enji would fight tooth and nail for me to get into UA anyways. 

“What are you going to do then? Think you’re too good to fight against me? You won’t even use that stupid quirk of yours, you’re just as useful as a quirkless nobody,” the kid jeered, smirking menacingly, grabbing the collar of Izuku’s gakuran. 

Izuku was going to wipe that god damn smirk off that kid’s face. 

The kid slammed Izuku’s head into the locker using their quirk. The kid had a quirk that turned their hands into rocks or something, and getting slammed into something with them hurt like a bitch. “What? Got nothing to say? Too afraid to fight back?” 

Izuku pushed back, ignoring the ringing in his ears, he definitely got a concussion. “I only talk to people worth talking to,” he groaned, channeling his inner Kacchan and threw a careless punch at his classmate who was trying to push him down. 

Rock for hands kid tries to grab him but misses because Izuku dodges out of the way. "Shut the fuck up. It's time you learned your place." 

“No, I think it's about time you learned yours,” Izuku rebutted, punching the kid in the stomach which made them keel over. “Don’t bother getting up, I can knock you back down again.” 

“Wait until I tell a teacher about this!” The kid shouted, trying to get back up despite Izuku’s warning. 

“And they would just tell you that you were stupid to provoke the kid with a ‘villain’s quirk’. Now take this as a lesson to you and anyone else, I’m not going to be taking shit from anyone this year. I’m tired of it and if you do try to provoke me, don’t expect me to let you off as easily as I have the past few years,” Izuku threatened, watching as the kid crawled back in fear. God my head hurts . Izuku thought. Stupid concussion . He would probably have to lay off on any intense training for the next few days until it goes away or he could use his quirk to fix it, but he really didn’t feel like deconstructing and reconstructing his head, hurts too much to do anyways. 

His classmate got up and glared at Izuku before walking away. Good. Hopefully, that would be the only physical incident that Izuku would have to deal with today. He still wanted to get some training in with Shinso even if his head was killing him. Speaking of which, he should really tell Shinso that he was going to take training easy today and tell him to join Izuku and his friends for training. 

Pulling out his phone, he sent several texts to Shinso.

Midoriya Izuku

< Hi Shinso! I wanted to ask you if you wanted to come to training with me and my friends? The location you gave me is a bit far from my school and I got injured this morning so I can’t go that far by myself.

< We could totally reschedule though if you don’t want to

< Here’s the location for where me and my friends train btw

[Midoriya Izuku has shared a location. Click to view]

< Just let me know. I get out of school at three, but I could wait for you if you get out later 

Izuku didn’t bother waiting for a reply from Shinso, he would just have to check his phone later, he had a class to head to anyways. 

But before he could go to class, he had to change his shoes and fix the locker that his classmate damaged from their fight. Thankfully Izuku’s quirk made it very easy to fix the locker, although using his quirk felt more draining than it usually did. Kacchan would probably kill him if he found out what happened. Oh well. 

Now onto the next course of action, changing his shoes. Izuku went to his own locker and put away his outside shoes in favor of his indoor ones. He then headed to his classroom and waited for class to begin. 

The rest of the school day passed without too much trouble for Izuku. Some of his classmates still made snide remarks behind his back, expecting that he wouldn’t hear, but if they were within earshot, Izuku would just give them a sharp glare and they would instantly shut their mouths. His teacher still turned a blind eye to whatever kid had the nerve to say or do shit to his face. Kacchan still found out about the incident that Izuku got himself into that morning and went to deal with their classmate that started the incident. Izuku decided not to stop Kacchan because: 

1. Izuku was tired.
2. He was extremely annoyed with how his entire school day played out and would just let Kacchan deal with it. 

Izuku told Kacchan that he would go home first to grab a change of clothes for training and so he could get to the training grounds first for a small warm-up. He should probably also check his phone to see if Shinso could come for training. 

Shinso Hitoshi 

> I can make it

> I get out of school half an hour after you and I have to catch the train, so just start training without me and you can catch me up when I get there

Midoriya Izuku

< Sounds good Shinso, I’ll be letting my friends know then too!

< I have to head home to grab a change of clothes anyway so we might get to the training grounds at the same time

< It might be hard for you to find since the location I gave you is right outside the area, if you need help finding it just send me a text and I can come and find you

After sending that text, Izuku headed home. The walk home was pretty quiet without Kacchan (have mercy on the kid who Kacchan decided to have a little chat with). They walked home from school almost every single day together ever since they were kids since they both lived so close together, which made it feel strange when they weren’t walking together. 

Kacchan was a bit worried about Izuku walking home alone today since they were both recently attacked by the sludge villain a few days earlier, but after a little bit of reassurance on Izuku’s part, Kacchan was reluctant to let him go home alone. 

Luckily, Izuku’s house wasn’t that far from his school. He did take it slower than usual though because his head still hurt, but it felt a lot better than it did that morning. 

His house was empty when he got home. No surprises here since Izuku’s parents were really busy with their jobs and would usually get home later in the day which gave him a lot of time to freely train with his friends and finish his schoolwork after training. Izuku found himself spending a lot more time training recently because he wanted to be prepared as possible for UA’s entrance exam even though it was still ten months away. It wasn’t like he had a lot of other things to do anyway. His teachers barely handed out work and it wasn’t like they’d grade his work fairly either. Stupid quirk discrimination . It didn’t really matter if Izuku put in his full effort for schoolwork anymore if his teachers were just going to take off points unfairly, but that isn’t to say that he didn’t do his work. Although, he did start taking online classes fairly recently to get ahead of his classmates once he entered high school. 

The classes were designed for kids several grades above him, but Izuku liked the challenge. The lessons were still fairly easy for him and his online classes let him do his assignments whenever he wanted which meant that whenever he wasn’t training or dealing with the bullshit from Aldera, he could get way ahead in terms of education. 

Izuku would probably have to skip doing his online classes today since he didn’t want to push himself too hard, he still had his normal school work to do too, though it wouldn’t take him too long and he could find time during his training breaks. 

On the topic of training, he should really grab a change of clothes and head over to the train station before he is late. As for training clothes, Izuku didn’t actually have that much, sure he usually wore one of his many All Might shirts to training, but looking at them now left a bitter taste in his mouth. He was still pretty hurt about what All Might had told him, sure, he was still angry about having his dreams, but it could’ve been worse, plus it gave him a whole new reason to be a hero. 

Izuku didn’t want to dwell on his hurt feelings for too long anyway, so instead of wearing his All Might shirt(s), he opted to wear the things Kacchan hated the most, his t-shirts that had pants written on them and his pants that had shirts written on them. Truly, his fashion sense was impeccable and he didn’t know why Kacchan hated his clothes so much. Shouto thought that his shirts were funny and that was the only opinion that mattered. Kacchan has no taste . (Says Izuku even though he was fully aware that Kacchan’s parents were both fashion designers)

On the kitchen countertop, Izuku left a note for his parents to find if they got home before he did, and then he rushed out of the door to catch the train in time. Normally he and his friends would train at Izuku’s family training field because it was close for Izuku and Kacchan, so they wouldn’t have to make the commute to the Shouto’s place for training.

As the months for UA’s entrance exam were approaching though, the trio had opted for training at the Todoroki family estate to get extra training from Endeavor when he didn’t have hero work. 

The commute to the estate was only about a ten-minute trip by train, but Izuku just had to catch the train in time. He was cutting it a bit close by taking his time getting home and changing, so Izuku almost missed the train. It wouldn’t have been a problem if he missed the first train that came by in the late afternoon since a second one would show up twenty minutes later, but it would be a bother to wait, especially when Shinso was training with them too. 

The train ride didn’t last long, but as soon as it pulled up to his station, Izuku rushed out and ran as fast as he could to Shouto’s house. As he was running, he yet again did not pay attention to where he was going so he crashed into the same person he did the day prior.

Real fucking smooth Izuku. Real fucking smooth.

Chapter Text

“You gotta stop doing this,” Shinso grunted, standing up and holding out a hand to Izuku. 

“Sorry, sorry. I wasn’t watching where I was going and I wanted to get there before you,” Izuku replied, taking the boy’s outstretched hand. 

“Maybe try not to make a habit of it in the future. Personally, I’d rather not have a bruise on my ass every time we see each other,” Shinso replied sarcastically with a teasing glint in his eyes. 

Izuku flushed slightly but quickly regained his composure. “You know what? Now that you say it, I am forever going to crash into you and leave you with a nasty ass bruise just for mentioning it. 

Shinso clutched his hand to his heart dramatically to give a very theatrical reaction to Izuku’s reply. “Oh, you wound me so. How could you?”

“Oh shut up, you could take it,” Izuku snorted. “Now come on, let me show you the way to the training spot.”

The insomniac nodded and followed Midoriya. Hitoshi was glad that he ran into Midoriya on their way to training because he was rarely in Musutafu and would’ve probably gotten lost. The location Midoriya had given him didn’t have a name so Hitoshi didn’t even know if he was going to end up in the right place or if Midoriya had given him the wrong address. It didn’t hurt to ask. 

“Sooo Midoriya, where are we going to train anyways? The address you gave me didn’t really lead to a certain location with a name.”

“Oh! I forgot to tell you about that. The place we’re going to is super discrete, so you would have to walk around the area for a few minutes until you find it,” Midoriya replied happily, walking a few steps ahead of Hitoshi, but looking back at him to make sure he was following. 

“Are you sure this isn’t some murder plan? I dunno, sending someone to a super-secret location doesn’t exactly scream safe to me,” Hitoshi replied sarcastically, shrugging his shoulders.

Midoriya just rolled his eyes at him. “Well, hypothetically, what if I did have a secret vendetta against you? What would you do then?”

“I would try to stop you, and I probably could, considering that you have been talking to me for the past few minutes.”

“Actually, I have a few questions about your quirk. Could I ask you some?”

Hitoshi looked at Midoriya and shrugged. “Go for it. I can’t guarantee answers for all your questions though.”

“Can you tell people to do advanced brain functions like writing their name or can they only do things if you give them orders?” Midoriya asked, speeding up his walking pace. 

“I can’t make people do things that require advanced brain function. Like I can only tell them to do basic tasks,” Hitoshi replied, moving faster to match Midoriya’s pace. Wait, did he just pull out a notebook!? “Are you writing this down?”

“Yeah, I am. Oh, wait, sorry, I should’ve asked you first. I’m just really interested in learning about other quirks and it’s fascinating meeting people who have mental quirks like you. Mental quirks are pretty rare to come around and there isn’t as much information on them, so I’d like to learn more. I hope you don’t mind. You probably think it’s creepy. I could stop if you want me to, I don’t want to make you uncomfortable,” Midoriya laughed awkwardly, his face turning red and flushing all the way up to his ears. 

Hitoshi put a hand on Midoriya’s shoulder to reassure the other boy that it was fine. “It’s all cool. It’s just kinda weird to me that you are interested in my quirk when most people want to do nothing with it." 

"You know, I get a lot of that too. It's always the same, 'you can't be a hero with your quirk. You can kill people with it. You're a villain. Flashy quirks make a hero' yada yada yada. It doesn't even matter anyway. Quirks are just tools to help us anyways," Midoriya replied with a smile. 

"I guess? What's it like for you? People probably see you more as a hero than they see me." 

"Not really. All of the kids and teachers I knew hated my quirk, they'd hear the word disassemble on a molecular level and they'd lose their minds thinking I would go around destroying the shit I want whenever I want. They don't even bother trying to hear the other applications of what I can do. Most of the teachers let students use me as their punching bag to test other quirks out just because I can reassemble myself. They used to force me to wear gloves too just so I wouldn't use my quirk, but I think they forgot the fact that I can use my quirk even if a single finger touches something" Midoriya responded with a nonchalant voice like the shit he dealt with wasn't a big problem.

Hitoshi's eyes widened at what he'd heard. He knew Midoriya would've gotten poor treatment from his peers, but he didn't expect for the kid to be a punching bag for everyone. "Damn man. It's rough for kids like us out in this world." 

Midoirya looked at Hitoshi and smiled sadly. "Yeah, it is. That's why we gotta stick together and prove them all wrong. Also, what do you go through? You don't have to answer if you don't want to though. I understand it can be a touchy subject." 

"People tend to ignore me since they think I would use my quirk on them if they spoke to me. I was also forced to wear a muzzle before my dads adopted me, like one of the ones that pricked into your tongue to even prevent you from talking.”

Midoriya gasped. “Shinso, that’s so awful. I can’t believe that they thought it was okay to harm a kid because they were afraid.” 

“Yeah, at least it doesn't happen anymore,” Shinso continued. “And back when I still lived in a foster home, the people there just neglected and separated me from the other kids because they thought I was going to use my quirk. I never really got bullied for it though, so you were probably worse off than I was.” 

“It’s not about who has it worse though, it’s about how people get untreated fairly because their quirks are viewed as villainous.” 

Hitoshi chuckled, as he and Midoriya started to approach a large Japanese-styled house. “You know, it’s kinda funny you say that because my dad said the same thing once too.”

“Your dad sounds like a nice person,” replied Midoriya, who stopped walking. “We’re almost there by the way. I’m just here to get one of my friends since their family owns the training area we’re going to. Do you mind waiting a minute or two?” 

“Uh yeah, I don’t mind,” Hitoshi replied, wondering what kinds of friends Midoriya had if they lived in a house this big. It must’ve been worth millions. 

Izuku ran quickly to the front door of Shouto’s house and knocked on the door3. Touya was the one who answered it. 

"You looking for Shouto squirt?" the eldest of the Todoroki siblings asked. 

"Uh-huh. Is he home? We were going to do some training today," Izuku replied, peeking inside the house for any signs of Shouto. 

"Yeah. Let me go get him for you. Say, you're still training UA right?" asked Touya. 

"Yep! I've been putting in more hours of training lately since the entrance exam is close and all." 

"Well, if you ever need a little bit of extra help, come find me when I'm free, kid. You know where I am." 

"I'll think about it. Thanks for the offer though." 

"'Course kid. You're practically family to us anyway, I don't mind helping," Touya smirked, before running off inside the house to get his little brother. 

It took a few minutes, but when Touya came back, Shouto was also with him. Izuku lit up as soon as he saw messy strands of bi-colored hair. 

"Sho!" He exclaimed before pulling Shouto into a hug. It might have been a bit silly to pull his friend into a hug since they see each other so often, but Izuku didn't really care. He loved his friends and can and will always hug them like it was the last time he could. 

Shouto hugged him back with just as much enthusiasm. They shared a bond that was different than the one Izuku had with Kacchan. 

For one, Shouto turned out to be a lot more touchy than Kacchan, like a lot more touchy. Shouto was a major cuddle bug and Izuku had figured this out at one of their many sleepovers when Shouto had somehow managed to move from his futon over to Izuku's and ended up latching onto the other boy, resulting in them cuddling the entire night. A lot of other times after training when Shouto was dead tired, he'd often come over to Izuku to rest his head on the shorter boy's shoulder or to lay in his lap for a while. At first, Izuku was a bit confused, but after some time, having Shouto close and in physical contact with him felt like second nature. It also meant a lot more to Izuku than he thinks Shouto could ever comprehend. 

The other thing that separated Shouto from Kacchan was that Shouto was so incredibly kind and gentle as opposed to Kacchan. Admittedly, some days were harder for Izuku than others, and on the hard days, Shouto would always be there to comfort and give him someone to talk to. Shouto would let Izuku hold onto him like he was his last lifeline as the bi-colored boy ran his hand through messy green curls to console the other boy. Sometime’s he’d rub small circles into Izuku’s back to chase away the nerves and get rid of the tension in his shoulders. On more mundane days where he couldn’t bring himself to talk about much, Shouto would trace the myriad of freckles on Izuku’s cheeks, shoulders, and hands to create an array of constellations. The boy would then describe each kind of constellation from their names, to the story behind them, to where to find them in the sky. Shouto didn’t talk as much as Izuku, but when Izuku couldn’t, Shouto would fill in the empty spaces that were left missing. 

Other times, Izuku would forget to eat proper meals because he got so caught up with school and training, and Shouto would always have a bento box full of food ready for him. It was a gesture that made Izuku feel all warm inside and sent a fuzzy feeling throughout his entire body. Needless to say, Shouto was one of the most important people in his life.

“Hello Izuku, how are you?” Shouto asked, ruffling up Izuku’s hair. 

Izuku melted under the soft touch. “It was a rough day Sho, but it’s all better now. Plus, I brought someone I wanted you to meet.” 

Shouto raised one white eyebrow at him. “Are they this Shinso you were talking about yesterday?”

“Yep! Let me introduce you to him, he’s waiting for us right now,” Izuku perked, grabbing Shouto’s hand and taking him to the spot where he left Shinso. 

Hitoshi was definitely shocked to see who Midoriya came back with. It didn’t take a genius to know that the tall boy with half-red and half-white hair was none other than Shouto Todoroki, Endeavor’s son. 

Now, Hitoshi generally didn’t like the kids of heroes. Many of them were pretentious assholes who thought they were superior to everyone since they had strong and amazing quirks and known names for themselves. He wanted to assume that Todoroki would be the same, but Aizawa had lectured him about assuming without facts. 

“Shouto Todoroki, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Izuku was telling me about you yesterday,” Todoroki introduced himself, bowing to Hitoshi. Maybe this kid wasn’t as pretentious as I thought he was. At least he has the respect to greet me. Hitoshi thought.

“Hitoshi Shinso, and same to you,” Hitoshi replied, also bowing. 

“So, you’re here to train with us right? Are you planning on going to UA?” asked Todoroki. 

“Yeah,” Hitoshi replied. 

“Oh great, you’re going to be the perfect training buddy since all of us want to go to UA too,” Todoroki replied cooly. “Follow me, I’ll show you the training area. Also, do you use any support items during training?” 

Hitoshi nodded and started following the taller boy with Midoriya walking beside him. “Yeah, just a capture weapon though, and a utility knife. I don’t have them on me today though.” 

“Bring them next time, it’s boring if we train by doing the same thing all the time. We were planning to do quirk training today anyways, so it isn’t a problem that you didn’t bring your support items.” 

“Well, assuming that you want to keep training with us after today,” Midoriya piped in. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but you’re always welcome to join.” 

“I’ll make the decision after today, but I don’t know if you guys want me to use my quirk on you,” Hitoshi quickly replied. 

“What’s your quirk, Shinso?” Todoroki asked curiously. 

“Brainwashing. It allows me to control someone if they give me a verbal response to what I say,” Hitoshi replied cautiously, getting himself mentally prepared for Todoroki to push him away with disgust. 

But that disgust never came. 

Todoroki smiled at him. “Interesting. I heard that mental quirks are generally pretty rare, but ones like yours are especially special because of how powerful they are. I actually want to experience the effects of your quirk myself.” 

“I do too! I want to see how your quirk works on the person it’s being used on,” Midoriya agreed. 

Hitoshi felt heat rising on his cheeks at how the two people he just met weren’t afraid of him. They welcomed him and welcomed for him to use his quirk even though they knew what it was. It certainly was one of the first times he felt like he belonged somewhere and he wanted to get to know Midoriya and Todoroki more if they wanted him around. 

“Actually, I think I want to come back after today. I don’t know, I barely know both of you, but you guys make me feel like I belong even with my quirk,” Hitoshi spoke. 

“You’ll always have a place with us, don’t worry about it,” replied Midoriya who was beaming. 

Todoroki didn’t respond, but the smile on his face was enough of an answer for Hitoshi. 

He was welcomed. 

Chapter Text

Turns out, Todoroki was not like every other rich kid. Sure, he had a big name being the son of Japan’s number two hero and he had a good quirk, but the kid was surprisingly humble. 

He smiled politely at Hitoshi's sarcastic remarks and even made a few himself. It was definitely weird being acknowledged in a good way by someone, but he didn't mind it. 

Midoriya and Todorki helped him warm up, and god, it was painful. They showed him ways to stretch that he didn’t even know he could do, but future Hitoshi would be very thankful the next morning when he wasn't sore. The two had also told him that using his quirk on them was fair game as soon as actually started fighting each other. Hitoshi was hesitant about using his quirk, but after a lot of reassurance from Todoroki and Midoriya, he decided that it wouldn’t hurt. 

The small group was still warming up when a tall blonde boy joined them.

“Hey Icyhot, ‘Zuku! You guys training or what?” the blonde yelled loudly. 

“Hi, Kacchan! We’re just getting started, but first, I want you to meet someone,” Midoriya quickly replied, calling the boy to come over. 

The blonde walked over (more like slouched, how does he even walk like that) and looked straight at Hitoshi. 

“Name’s Katsuki Bakugo. Don’t forget that,” Bakugo introduced boldly. Hitoshi could tell that this one was not going to use any formalities with him.

“Hitoshi Shinso,” Hitoshi replied with almost as much intensity. 

“What’s your quirk? If you want to train with us, you gotta have enough power to beat all the shitty extras,” Bakugo stated, looking at Hitoshi curiously trying to pinpoint his quirk. 

Normally he would hesitate when someone asked about his quirk, but he had a rush of confidence from earlier. 

“Brainwashing. You?”

Bakugo grinned maniacally. “It’s called explosion. I sweat nitroglycerin from my palms to make explosions.”

“Perfect quirk for heroics,” Hitoshi mumbled, hoping that no one would hear, but Bakugo heard. 

“Damn right it is. Your quirk ain’t half bad either. It isn’t flashy or physically strong, but it sure is a hell of an overpowered quirk, mindfuck.” 

Hitoshi just deadpanned Bakugo. “Mindfuck, really?”

“Don’t worry about Kacchan’s nickname,” Midoriya chuckled. “He only gives them to people he thinks are worthy of not being ‘extras’.”

“I don’t know if you’re worthy or not. Fight me and I’ll decide,” replied Bakugo, popping tiny explosions in his hands. 

“What?” 

“You heard me mindfuck, fight me right now.”

Hitoshi looked at Todoroki and Midoriya for guidance and they just smiled at him. Well shit. Hopefully, all his training with his dad would help. He walked closer to Bakugo and accepted the challenge. 

“Good to see we’re on the same page,” Bakugo smirked, getting into position. “Rules are simple, we have to push the other person out of bounds, quirks are fair game.” 

Midoriya stepped right outside of the white border marking where the out-of-bound zone is. “I’ll be the referee. Are you ready?”

Bakugo nodded, and Hitoshi got into position and did the same.

“Alright. Three, two, one, begin!” 

The explosive blonde did not hesitate as soon as Midoriya started the match. He launched himself at Hitoshi using giant explosions and Hitoshi barely had enough time to move out of the way. 

Thankfully Bakugo didn’t know the activation requirements of Hitoshi’s quirk and this would be an easy win. 

Another hit was thrown by Bakugo, but this time, Hitoshi was on high alert so he could move out of the way in time. 

“Stop dodging and fight me!” Bakugo shouted. 

Hitoshi grinned. 

“Maybe I’d fight you if you could actually hit me,” he jeered. “For someone who wants to fight, you’re pretty bad at it.”

This riled up Bakugo and got the exact reaction Hitoshi wanted. 

“What the fuck did you just say!?”

Perfect . Hitoshi thought as he activated his quirk. 

Bakugo stopped moving right away and stood as still as a board waiting for Hitoshi to give orders. 

“Walk out of bounds,” he ordered. Hitoshi felt Bakugo trying to resist the order, but it wouldn’t happen. For all he knew, breaking out of brainwashing was almost near impossible or just plain impossible for anyone. Hitoshi didn’t know much about his own quirk since not many people would ever be willing test subjects, but his dads let him test it out to figure the limits. The only thing he did know was that overusing his quirk would cause nose bleeds and migraines and that it was harder to control someone who was resisting the control. 

Hitoshi deactivated his quirk as soon as Bakugo’s foot stepped past the white line. Bakugo instantly snapped back to reality and looked angrily at Hitoshi. Oh shit. He gulped. 

“Shinso is the winner!” Midoriya announced happily, clapping his hands together. “That’s the quickest Kacchan ever lost.” 

This seemed to hit a nerve in Bakugo and he looked even angrier about losing. He stomped towards Hitoshi, who was prepared to be hit, but instead, the blonde had actually held his hand out for Hitoshi to shake. 

“I’m not happy about losing in a minute, but quirks are fair game and yours is stupidly overpowered. Your footwork is sloppy though and the only advantage you had over me was that I didn’t know the activation requirements of your quirk,” Bakugo grunted. 

“Fair enough. That’s why I’m here aren’t I?” Hitoshi replied with a shrug. 

“Damn right, and you’re going to be learning from all three of us, starting with me first,” Bakugo smirked, cracking his knuckles. “The nerd and icyhot are too busy ogling each other anyway,” he whispered, making Hitoshi look at Midoriya and Todoroki staring at each other way too intensely for it to be platonic. 

“Are they like?” Hitoshi questioned quietly. 

Bakugo chuckled at him. “Nah, they’re pining idiots though. Come with me, I’ll teach you some kickass moves,” the blonde said, grabbing Hitoshi’s wrist. “Hey, nerd! I’m taking your boyfriend for a bit! You’ll get to have him later!”

Midoriya flushed a bright red. “He’s not my boyfriend!” 

“You sure about that? Oh, how could I forget? Icyhot is your boyfriend,” Bakugo smirked, which got an even bigger rise from the green-haired boy. 

“K-kacchan! Shouto isn’t my boyfriend either!” 

“Am I not your friend?” Todoroki chimed in, tilting his head to the side in mock confusion. 

“You’re my friend Shouto, just not my boyfriend,” Midoriya replied shyly, hiding his face in his hands. Strangely enough, he reminded Hitoshi of a strawberry. Must’ve been the green hair. 

“But I’m a boy, and I’m your friend aren’t I?”

Bakugo whispered in Hitoshi’s ear, “just play along. Don’t worry about it either, they won’t be offended.” 

Midoriya heard what Bakugo whispered to Hitoshi and quickly snapped himself out of his flustered state. “Kacchan, you better think twice about what you say next before I smite you in your sleep,” Midoriya mouthed with a smile. 

Most people would assume that Izuku Midoriya was a pure sunshine child, but little do they know, he is an absolute menace and could take over the world if he wanted to. He was also the only person to strike fear into the terror known as Katsuki Bakugo. 

“You know what? I’m just going to take mindfuck here. See you later!” Bakugo remarked, grabbing Shinso and dragging him to a completely different part of the training field. 

“Sorry, Shinso!” Midoriya shouted as Bakugo dragged Hitoshi away. “Kacchan’s just a bit of an ass, but he’s a really good fighter! I’m sure you’ll learn a lot from him, but we can train later together too!” 

Hitoshi just smiled awkwardly and went with Bakugo. In the future during the entrance exam, Hitoshi would thank whatever higher being that was out there that led him to meet the trio because they were the whole reason why he passed. 

Izuku smiled to himself seeing Kacchan being so attached (as attached as Kacchan could be at least) to someone new. He was really glad that Kacchan didn't blow up (both literally and metaphorically) on Shinso when he used his quirk because Izuku knew how bad quirk prejudice could be. 

He stood back for a moment and watched Kacchan teach Shinso how to fight before turning his attention back to Shouto. 

"Are you done warming up Sho?" Izuku asked fondly, walking over to his friend. 

Shouto looked up and smiled softly. "I'm just about done Izuku. What should we start with for today?" 

Izuku thought for a moment contemplating his answer. He and his friends never really were strict on what they trained for. Some days it was only with their quirks, other days they trained their bodies to increase their endurance, or it would often be a combination of the two. He tried to think of areas that he and Shouto were both lacking in. 

"I think we’ve been working on physical training a lot lately, but do you want to do more with that or should we work on using our quirks?” Izuku questioned, looking at Shouto patiently for an answer. 

“Let’s use our quirks for today. I came up with a new move the other day and I wanted to get some help perfecting it anyways,” replied Shouto, walking towards the training field. 

“I’ll be happy to help!” Izuku exclaimed excitedly. He loved seeing Shouto use his quirk because there were so many different applications for it that his mind could run wild with endless possibilities for how it could be used. Plus, it was beautiful seeing everything his best friend could create. “I’ll just stand back and watch you use it so I can analyze it first if that’s okay with you.”

Shouto nodded in response as he situated himself on the field. “Can you use your quirk to make a giant slab for me?” he asked. 

“Of course!” Izuku replied, walking into the field and touching his hands to the ground. “Do you want it to be thick or thin? How hard do you want it to be?” 

“Make it thick and as hard as you can, please,” Shouto answered, watching as Izuku started to use his quirk and the structure was created within seconds. 

It was practice for him too anyways. Izuku was always happy to use his quirk to help his friends out, plus, it lets him use it more often. It didn’t take him that much effort to reform the ground, but it was just because his quirk let him do the impossible. His quirk was also a lot less complex than what most people thought it to be. Izuku just had to think about what he wanted to make and it would happen as long as he was touching the material, but there were some limitations. One, his quirk is touch activated and it only works through his hands so far. Two, his quirk doesn’t work on fractured terrains that well because pieces weren’t connected.

His quirk worked a lot faster than he could react to it. The process of deconstruction and reconstruction would work in the blink of an eye and what was there before, would be completely new. 

“Are you ready to see the new move?” Shouto asked as Izuku backed away from the giant slab. 

“I always am, don’t keep me waiting Sho, I’m excited to see what you can do!,” Izuku cheered enthusiastically. 

Shouto smiled big and wide as he activated his quirk. The air between the boys rapidly cooled down, which caused Izuku to shiver just a bit, but Shouto remained steady since his body was made to withstand a substantial amount of heat and cold. He kept cooling the air around them until frost started to form on the ground and immediately switched to using his fire. 

Izuku grinned at what he was seeing as he figured out what Shouto was doing. Smart move . He thought.

Switching to dire created a superheated blast that rivaled that of Kacchan's explosions and destroyed the upper half of the slab that Izuku made just minutes prior. 

"What do you think?" Shouto asked confidently. 

Izuku beamed. "That was amazing, Shouto! Not that your other moves weren't amazing!" He laughed awkwardly. "When did you come up with this?" 

"I think I came up with it a few days ago while training with my father. This is probably my fifth time using this move though, so it isn't perfect. Care to analyze the move?" 

"So what I think you did was use your cold side to cool the air around you and then when it got cold enough, you quickly used your fire. You made your fire hotter than you normally do, which rapidly caused the temperature around you to increase. Rapidly increasing the heat in the cold air would make it expand, so it creates a giant blast of power in an explosion," Izuku rambled. He was about to stop himself, but he looked up and saw Shouto listening to him fondly, nodding for him to give more input. "I have a theory I want to test though. I believe that the hotter you make your flames, the air around you would heat up faster, and that would mean the blast would be a lot stronger." 

"Do you want to test that theory?" 

"Yes I do, but I also want to test how small of a blast you can make with this technique. Do you think you could only cool the air in a really small area or does it have to be a large area like what you just did? I also want to see how fast you can make the blasts, so I'll keep using my quirk to rapidly make obstacles for you to blow up while I keep trying to rebuild it. I need to work on using my quirk more effectively on broken terrain too, so it can be practice for both of us." 

"Let me test out your heat theory first, and then we can focus on smaller blasts and your quirk," Shouto replied. "Do you want to do a test with the slabs again, or should we not use them this time?" 

"I think we should use the slab for this test too for consistency, but I need to fix it first.”

Izuku walked towards the slab and put a hand on it. He drew up more dirt from the ground and was able to exactly recreate the same hardness as he did earlier. It wasn’t much of a challenge, but it helped him be precise when it came to affecting a material's natural condition. Though his quirk is called overhaul, it was a lot more complicated than just disassembling and reassembling things. Izuku could change the natural state of things by rearranging its molecules, which meant he could change matter by just touching it.

“It’s ready for you Sho,” he said when he was done. 

Shouto didn’t say anything, but he started to cool down the air again. Izuku watched closely to catch anything he had missed the first time, and he wished he had his notebook on him to take notes. Oh well. He thought. He would just have to take mental notes and put them into his notebook later when he got home. 

It took a few minutes to get the surrounding area cold enough since the blast from earlier heated the air, but when he was ready, Shouto bursted into flames. The only difference from the previous time he did this was that the fire was now considerably hotter burning at a clear orange color rather than his typical red. And as Izuku theorized, the blast was bigger and more powerful. He definitely needed to write this down later. 

“Izuku, you were right,” Shouto stated, even though he knew Izuku knew he was right. 

“Yep! Do you have a name for this move? I want to write it down in my notebook later,” the other boy replied, buzzing in excitement. 

Shouto thought about it for a moment. He didn’t have an official name for the move yet, but he did go through many different variations of what to call it with a lot of help from Touya and his father. 

“I think I’m going to call it flashfreeze heatwave, but the name isn’t official yet.”

“Did you take inspiration from your dad’s super move?” Izuku questioned. 

Shouto flushed. “It is. I think it has become a little family tradition thing since Touya also named one of his supermoves after my father’s moves. I think I am going to do the same thing too, like do it to make my old man proud, y’know?”

“Your dad’s already proud of you Sho."

"Is he though?" The boy questioned, looking dejected. (That might have pulled on Izuku's heartstrings just a little bit. Well, maybe more than just a bit.) "I don't know if I could ever compare to my older brother. I'm happy for Touya because he was able to accomplish his dream of becoming a hero despite his body's drawbacks. He was able to follow my father's footsteps and broke into the top twenty rankings after debuting. How could I ever compete with that, Izuku? My father looks at Touya with so much pride, and I wish I could make him as proud as Touya did," he continued. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be dumping this on you since you wanted to train today." 

Izuku looked at him sadly. "Sho… I'll always be here to listen to your problems no matter what, you're my friend after all." 

"Thank you, Izuku. But sometimes, I feel like I'm not doing enough with the power I was given. My father gave me his power to continue the family's legacy along with Touya, but I'm just an ember compared to my brother's brilliance." 

"Shouto, you are you. You're not Touya and you're just as brilliant in your own way. And, it's your power Sho. It's not your father's. It's your power to cultivate and explore and you are doing enough with it aren't you? You're training every day to make yourself stronger so you can be a hero, and for the record, you'll always be enough for me." 

Shouto smiled softly at him. Yes! Victory! Izuku thought. He was glad to make his friend feel better even if it was just a hit. "Have I ever told you how much you mean to me? I would be in pieces right now if it weren't for you." 

This draws a small giggle out of Izuku. "You have, but you know, it's nice to hear it every now and again." 

"Noted. Also, leaving the depressing feelings behind, we should really start training." 

"We should," was all Izuku said, as he got onto the field with Shouto. 

The two had a very successful training session if he did say so himself. Shouto was able to make his blasts more precise, while Izuku started being able to connect disconnected pieces together faster. It was a good thing for him since he was slowly countering his biggest weakness in combat. 

Shinso was also very successful during his session with Kacchan. The purple-haired boy had spared with Izuku after Kacchan was done with him, and Izuku noticed the improvement. Shinso's footing neater and was able to keep him grounded for a majority of the fight, but Izuku still ended up on top since he definitely had years of experience on Shinso. At least the other boy was a good sport about losing. In fact, he didn't even seem to mind that he lost, he was just happy that he could keep up with Izuku for the first few minutes before he got his ass kicked. 

It also put everything into perspective for Hitoshi. He and all of Midoriya’s friends were the same age, but they had years of experience on him, whereas he only had a few months. He wondered if all kids who wanted to be in UA's hero course trained like this. He knew some of them would get in through recommendations because they were from legacy families, but others had flashy and insanely powerful quirks. Would he even be able to beat his competition? 

Hitoshi didn't bother to train his body up until a few months ago, so he was very behind Midoriya and his friends. Back then, he didn't think he needed to train that much physically because his quirk was a mental one, but then, his dad threw him into a bunch of situations where Hitoshi had to fight quirkless. This really opened his eyes to what heroics is like; it was about utilizing your own quirk as a tool to help, rather than something to rely on.  

Today's training made him realize that he needed to be more motivated to train and do better. Hitoshi needed to become stronger and get on Midoriya's level of strength to even be good enough. 

Midoriya definitely had a point to prove by going to UA, but Hitoshi did too. He was going to have to work harder in order to do it. 

Which is perfect because the small group had invited Hitoshi back to their training sessions any time he wanted as long as he gave one of them a heads up. He exchanged numbers with everyone at the end and was on his way home. 

Hitoshi had asked his dad to take today off training with him so that he could come join Midoriya, but Hitoshi knew that his dad wanted to see what he learned today. Don't get him wrong, he loved training with his dad, after all, the man was a pro hero, but training with kids his age let him see what he was working against. That was the whole reason why he opted to joining Midoriya and his friends for training, but then again, they were probably going to be his biggest competition yet. 

Other kids around their age had strong quirks, sure, but they lacked the intense training that Midoriya and his friends had. Hitoshi was not surprised at their strength as soon as he saw Endeavor's kid. It was no surprise to anyone that Endeavor had kids with insanely powerful quirks, so when he saw Shouto Todoroki, Hitoshi knew he was no different. The only thing that had caught him off guard was the fact that Midoriya and Bakugo were on the same level despite not being legacy children. He wanted to be just as good as they are. 

Hitoshi made a vow to himself that day. He was going to push himself to the limits and show the world that people with quirks like him could become a hero. 

Chapter Text

Izuku’s week passed by uneventfully, for the most part. The other kids in his class found out about the incident on Monday and started to avoid him. Some still tried to poke and get a rise out of him, but that didn’t last very long because they would immediately stop with one glare. It honestly felt good to have that kind of power, plus, it got people to leave him alone. 

The only other incident that Izuku got involved in this week was him scaring the ever-living shit out of his teacher. 

It was a Friday when the incident happened. Izuku was only an hour into school and had already completed all of his assignments for that day so he opted to work on his online class. His teacher had decided to be an ass and say that he was cheating, while Izuku tried to calmly explain that he was taking online classes.

“I already finished my work and put it on your desk, sir. I am taking online classes right now and I am working on those assignments,” Izuku explained. 

“That’s complete nonsense Midoriya. You are clearly cheating and I should’ve known that you were up to no good again this year. Why can’t you be more like Bakugo, he is the perfect student,” the teacher replied, looking in Kacchan’s direction. 

Kacchan let out an exasperated sigh and rolled his eyes. 

“I’m going to have to call your parents to inform them about this incident.”

Izuku just glared at the teacher. “Go ahead. I’m sure that they would love an interruption from their busy day with a lousy phone call filled with lies," he replied sarcastically. 

His teacher's nostrils flared up in anger and if they had a fire quirk like his dad, smoke surely would've been coming out of them. 

"Why you little brat! You will go to the principal's office and wait there for your parents to come to resolve this situation if you want to be so disrespectful and dishonest!" the teacher yelled angrily. 

"Whatever," Izuku sighed in annoyance. It was pointless to fight back now anyway, but at least his mom or dad will set them straight. 

Izuku waited patiently in the office waiting for one of his parents to come. He didn't know the specifics of his contact list, but it was probably his mom who was going to come since his dad was never listed. Who really knows though, it could've been updated. 

His teacher and the principal were sitting in the office waiting for the arrival of Inko Midoriya, however, they did not expect her husband to walk in through the doors. 

"I am here for my son Izuku Midoriya," his father started calmly. "You must forgive me, my wife could not make it this morning since she has a very important matter to attend to at work." 

His teacher gulped nervously looking at the tall man standing at the door. 

"That will be quite alright Mr. Midoriya. I apologize for taking up your time, but I'm afraid Midoriya here has decided to start cheating in class. By Aldera's policy, we will have to suspend or even expel him for dishonoring academic integrity. Of course, we would have to expel him for a multitude of other reasons since he has also been causing trouble for other kids since he first entered our establishment and I'm afraid I've turned a blind eye to this for all too long," his teacher lied. 

Hisashi Midoriya laughed a humorless laugh. "Did you really think that I am foolish enough to believe that? You know, my son had probably explained to you that he was taking extra online classes, or you refused to listen to him." 

"Well Mr. Midoriya, your son had been harassing the other kids with his quirk. There have been many complaints made against Midoriya by many of his classmates," the teacher continued lying. 

However, Hisashi was not one to be easily fooled. He knew his son well, and he knew that Izuku would never do the things his teacher claims him to do. He had been quite suspicious of Aldera for quite some time already and he saw today as an opportunity to prove his suspicions correct and gather sufficient evidence. 

"Do you have any proof of that?" Hisashi questioned sternly, making sure to look both the principal and teacher in the eye. 

"Of course we do, we have student eyewitnesses," the principal chimed in, but Hisashi was not believing it at all. 

"How do you know what they say is true? You know, kids do tend to lie and stir up trouble after all," Hisashi replied as calmly as he could. 

The principal and teacher made eye contact nervously, a small bead of sweat dripped from the teacher's head. 

"Well you see, I have talked about this situation with our dear principal here. There have just been so many complaints against your son bullying the other kids. Almost everyone in my class other than Bakugou has made complaints. I'm afraid if we let Midoriya's ruthless behavior slide then Bakugou will become his next target, we can't let that happen since Bakugou wants to go to UA and fighting back will result in an unfair mark," the teacher remarked. 

Hisashi smiled a cold grin. "It's funny how you mention UA because the principal of UA happens to be doing an investigation on this school." 

Aldera's principal gulped. 

"I have had suspicions about this school for a while and I brought my suspicions up with Principal Nedzu over a nice cup of tea between old friends. Of course, Principal Nedzu had to open an investigation into schools that have students that want to attend UA, but we can't have bad apples entering one of the most prestigious schools too, can we? To be truthful, I was sent by Nedzu to stop by and inform you about the investigation and potential lawsuit as well as obtaining all the security footage from when my son enrolled here to the present," Hisashi explained with a sadistic smile across his face, little flickers of fire could be seen dancing through cracks of his grin. 

"Y-you don't have the warrant to do that!" The principal stammered. Izuku's teacher just stood there looking like he was on the verge of a breakdown. 

Hisashi pulled out his briefcase and reached inside to pull out a document. "Actually, I do. You are required by law to hand over all the footage to UA or my lawyers, if you fail to do so, I and Principal Nedzu are allowed to take legal action against you. I will see to it that this school is shut down." 

The principal of Aldera was fuming but sweated under Hisashi's sharp gaze. "But you'll be ruining all the bright futures of the students here such as Bakugou's! This school has resided in Musutafu for decades! You can't just go shutting down the school just for that, we'll sue!" 

Smoke started coming out of Hisashi's mouth. "And you wouldn't win," he stated, staring blankly. "My lawyer's and UA's legal team are some of the best in the country, you wouldn't win against them if you decided to sue. If you must excuse me, I will be taking my leave and taking my son with me. He will not be returning to this school until the investigation is over. If you have any more inquiries, here is my business card." 

The principal and teacher looked like they wanted to open their mouths to say something, but they didn't, so Hisashi and Izuku left, not bothering to hear any further protest from the two other adults. 

Hisashi didn't say a word to Izuku until they were in Hisashi's car. 

"You know son, you are a terrible liar and I wish that you would've come to me sooner about your teachers and classmates at school," said Hisashi as he was starting up the car. 

Izuku being Izuku was still processing everything that just happened. What. The. Actual. Fuck. Well, at least Aldera was going to get their ass kicked. 

"How did you find out?" Was all Izuku could muster up to say. Am I in trouble? 

"I overheard you talking to your friends about it before. Also, don't worry, you aren't in trouble."

Izuku flushed. He didn't expect his dad to find out, especially since Izuku thought he was being all secretive about it considering he only talked about it with his friends when he was sure his parents weren’t home. 

“So how long did you know about this?” Izuku asked awkwardly. 

“I’ve known about it for a few months now. Initially, I brushed it off, but I got more suspicious about it as time went on, so I asked Nedzu to look into it for me. It took a little bit of time to find something damning, but I thought I would wait for you to say something first.” 

“Why did you wait, dad?” 

Hisashi smiled at his son, being mindful of keeping his eyes on the road. “Because I knew you were capable of handling yourself. Son, I know you don’t like asking for help from anyone, especially me or your mom, but I want you to know that it will never be an inconvenience for us to help you out every now and then. It’s what parents are for, Izuku.”

Tears came rushing to Izuku’s eyes at his dad’s words. “You’re an amazing dad,” he sobbed. 

“You do certainly take after your mother,” Hisashi chuckled. “And you take after her for more than just the waterworks. You are just as resilient, headstrong, and kind as she is. I honestly think that Aldrea is lucky that I'm the one who is dealing with it rather than your mother. She would tear the school down brick from brick and no one would be spared." 

"That sounds like her alright," Izuku giggled. As much as he loved his mom, which was just slightly above his love for katsudon, she was absolutely terrifying when she was mad. Speaking of his mom… "Dad, does mom know about this?" 

"No she doesn't, not yet at least. If it is okay with you, I was planning on telling her tonight during dinner. I think we both know better than to hide this from your mom. The sooner she knows the better anyways." 

Izuku thought for a moment. On one hand, he didn't want to disappoint or make his mom sad with the news, but on the other hand, she would be even more disappointed that he didn't tell her anything sooner. The decision made him feel conflicted, but he would rather tell her tonight than sit around and wait on it. 

"We should tell her," Izuku replied calmly, looking out the window. "Also, what will we do since I'm not going back to Aldera until the investigation is finished?" 

"You don't have to worry about that Izuku. Technically you are smart enough to skip your current grade level. You know those extra online classes you've been taking that's supposed to give you a challenge?" 

Izuku nodded and waited for his dad's response. 

"I don't want to lie to you son, but the whole reason why I signed you up for those online classes was a test that Nedzu wanted to try on you. He’s heard a lot about you from me and he wanted to see for himself what you were made of, so he catered these classes to be at a college level to see if you could do it. He was actually quite impressed at what he saw and was thinking about letting you continue these classes or to be personally tutored by him until you enter UA and the rest can be decided from there.” 

Wait what? He was being tested by the principal of UA this whole time!? Oh shit. 

In the future, Aldera will burn down and the reason behind it has to do with two protective fiery dads and a plotting stoat that enjoys chaos 

Chapter Text

Izuku was in shock for the rest of the ride. First of all, the Principal of UA, one of the smartest beings in the world, wanted to make him his personal student if Izuku took the offer. Second of all, he was being tested by Nedzu all along, so every mistake he made was probably tracked by the stoat. That certainly isn't stressful at all . His mind taunted sarcastically. 

He was grateful that Nedzu had taken an interest in him, but at the same time, he was terrified at the notion of it. What if Nedzu began to regret teaching Izuku because he ended up not being good enough? Izuku had also heard of horror stories from former students of the stoat who only lasted for a week or less during personal lessons with Nedzu. What if he didn't last long enough? Would it be impossible for him to pass? Then, there was another problem, his father's legacy. 

Izuku's dad was a well-known alumnus from UA and for many reasons too. Hisashi Midoriya had created a ripple in the hero support gear world right after he graduated from UA and he became a leading tech giant. His inventions had taken hero support items by storm and created the blueprint for future support course students and companies alike, but he wasn't only known for that though. Before he became the leading support item inventor, he was a student at UA and Principal Nedzu's personal student and the only student that survived Nedzu's lessons. 

Izuku definitely had a lot to live up to, especially since his dad's legacy will soon be in his hands. His dad owned a massive support gear company and his inventions were sought out by most heroes in Japan and many others in other places in the world. It had always been his plan for Izuku to take over when he was old enough, but over the years, both he and his dad knew that it wouldn't happen. 

He was a late bloomer. Izuku's quirk didn't come in until he was about seven, which was uncommon for kids in his generation. Before his quirk manifested, Izuku spent a lot of time thinking about being a support gear inventor like his dad. He idolized his dad back then (not to say that he still doesn't idolize his dad now) and wanted to follow in his footsteps. When his quirk came in, he still wanted to be a support gear inventor. His quirk was perfect for taking things apart and putting them back together again, so why wouldn't he want to do what his dad did? 

As Izuku got older, the idea of becoming a support gear inventor got less appealing. His friends wanted to go into heroics and hanging around them started to spark his interest in heroes. Izuku's fascination with heroes had always been there ever since he was a kid, but he didn't realize that was something he wanted to do until he talked to uncle Enji. 

Uncle Enji told Izuku that he would be perfect for heroics because he had the heart of a hero, whatever that meant. His uncle got him into the same kind of training hero students would have when he was young awith Shouto and Kacchan and Izuku, and to his surprise, excelled in fighting. He loved the way it felt when his body could move in quick fluid motions, and he felt alive when he was on the tips of his toes coming up with plans in the blink of an eye. 

Heroics was something he was meant for from the very start and it was something Izuku knew he had to do, despite all odds, he would push through and do it.

In the meantime, he really needed to decide what to do with his education now that he isn't at Aldera anymore, so it was either the online classes or personal lessons with Nedzu. The answer came more easily to Izuku than he wanted it to. UA was his dream school and he couldn't pass up the opportunity of being taught by its principal. This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance and he couldn't possibly not take the opportunity that was handed to him on a silver platter. 

And with his decision being made, he decided to resume his online classes to kill time before he left for training. It was still early in the morning, so Kacchan and Shouto would still be in school for several more hours before they'd be able to answer their phones. 

Izuku had no major difficulties with his classes yet, he just zoomed through the lessons and the program would just auto-check to see if his answers were right or not and give feedback. He had spent a good hour or three doing this and it was noon by the time he decided to take a lunch break. 

Lunch was simple, it seemed like his mom knew that Izuku wouldn't be at school and left him food on the counter with a small note telling him that the food in the tupperware was his. It was only a simple matter of reheating it and then going about with his day.

He took a small break after lunch to text Kacchan to see how everything was after he left. 

Izuku

< Hey Kacchan!

Kacchan >:D

> WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED THIS MORNING AFTER YOU LEFT? THE STUPID TEACHER CAME BACK LOOKING LIKE HE WAS GONNA PISS HIMSELF

> WHERE ARE YOU? 

Izuku 

< My dad came and took me home 

< I’m not going to Aldera anymore 

Kacchan >:D

> Fucking finally 

> You made me worried, shitty nerd. At least shoot me a text next time if you aren’t coming back

Izuku

< I’m telling you now aren’t I? 

Kacchan >:D

> Don’t get all sassy with me you 

Izuku is typing… 

Izuku 

< Katsuki.

< Don’t you dare finish that sentence. 

Kacchan >:D

> How tf did you know what I was going to say?

> Also, I can't come to training later. The hag wants me to help her with some errands after school

> I'll come kick your ass tomorrow though

> Gotta go. Lunch hour is almost over 

Izuku

< Bye Kacchan!

< You can try but I can and will kick your ass

< Also because I know everything about you :) 

Kacchan >:D

> Whatever, need. Text me after you're done training or sucking Icyhot's face off 

Izuku blushed furiously at that last line. Of course, typical Kacchan . He didn't remember when the teasing started,  but Kacchan has been teasing him and Shouto about dating since forever. 

For the most part, Izuku was pretty sure he didn't have a crush on Shouto (Keyword here is pretty sure), but what would he know? He's never had a crush before, he's like fourteen and too focused on school to even start developing feelings for anyone. 

A crush is supposed to make you feel all warm and give you butterflies right? Shouto made him feel warm in both the literal and metaphorical sense. Shouto also gave him butterflies. And that is as friends do right? Right? 

Oh fuck. Izuku thinks. Maybe Kacchan was onto something when he said that Izuku and Shouto had a thing for each other… unless the feelings Izuku feels are the feelings that friends should feel towards another friend. 

Shit. He might actually have a crush.

Chapter Text

Okay okay, he was totally not freaking out right now about his new realization. 

Perhaps Izuku did like Shouto. Who wouldn't? Shouto definitely had a lot of admirers around the school and he was not shy of getting love confessions on a weekly basis from his classmates. Izuku wasn't Shouto's classmate though, he was his best friend. 

Is it weird to like your best friend like that?

He actually wasn't completely sure where his feelings lie. Maybe he did like Shouto in more of a friend way, but maybe it was just more of admiration than anything. Either way, he wasn't going to tell Shouto right away until Izuku figures out what his true feelings were. Also because it's totally not like there will be any misunderstandings this way since this is a fanfiction and we can't have nice things without dragging it on for plot or misunderstandings. 

Izuku was getting distracted now, he was supposed to be finishing up the last of his online assignments before training and here he was thinking about his feelings, those he could deal with later. 

Of course, Izuku wasn't stupid. It was the opposite, but it might have been stupid not to confront his feelings right away instead of letting them linger. It just didn't feel like the right time to be feeling things like that, he was busy with school and training, so there was no time for romance. At some point though, Izuku knew he would have to face his feelings and tell Shouto because it felt wrong hiding his feelings from his best friend. 

Thoughts of his feelings swirled around his head as he got back to work. It was nagging in the back of his mind, but he managed to shove the thoughts down far enough to finish his work. 

It didn't take long to finish the rest of the day's assignments, so Izuku took a small break after he was done before he headed off to training. 

Izuku and his friends wanted to train together as much as possible. From when they were kids, it was always going to be Izuku, Shouto, and Kacchan against the world. They wanted to be a hero team as a kid, but now that they were older, they all had different goals for being a hero. 

What was Izuku's goal? 

Did he want to be the best like All Might? Or did he want to prove something like Shouto? 

His goals weren't clear at all. Izuku had wanted to become a hero to prove to society how people with quirks like him could be more than just villains, but at the same time, he wanted to be the best. Being the best meant that he could prove himself as a capable and worthy hero to everybody, but is being a hero what he wanted? 

Izuku's reason for being a hero was to bring change, but did he even have to be a hero in order to make a change? Maybe his motivations were in the wrong place, but he had people have told him his entire life that he couldn't be a hero because of his quirk.

He was dead set on proving those people wrong. He was going to be a hero and show it to their damn faces that he was capable of saving people. His motivations weren't completely in the right place yet, but he was getting somewhere with it.

God this was depressing.

He should probably head over to Shouto’s house for training now. Izuku went to his room and got changed before leaving a note to his parents telling them that he would be leaving. It might have been silly to always leave them a little note telling them he was headed to training when they already knew where he was going, but Izuku did it anyway out of habit. 

Izuku took the longer and more scenic route to the train station. The next train wouldn’t be there for another half an hour anyways and the longer walk would still spare him some time to catch the train. 

The walk was calm and peaceful, it had put all of Izuku’s anxieties at ease and all his thoughts from earlier weren’t hurting his head. The train station wasn’t very crowded either. People brushed past him but didn't pay him any attention other than a small few apologizing when they brushed a little too closely. 

He tried to relax as his thoughts from earlier swirled around his head. God, it would be a pain in the ass for him to try to focus on his training today with Shouto if he can't keep his thoughts straight. 

Izuku waited until the train arrived and got on, letting the soft hum of the tracks and quiet chatter between the passengers ease his mind. Before long, he arrived at the station and began the walk to Shouto's house. 

Shouto was already sitting on the deck waiting for him. The boy ran up to Izuku and wrapped him in a bone-crushing hug. 

"Hi, Izuku," Shouto started with a fondness in his eyes. "How are you doing right now? Katsuki filled me in on what happened at school." 

"I'm handling this a lot better than I thought I would to be honest with you," Izuku giggled nervously, hugging the taller boy back. 

Shouto ruffled his hair and laughed an airy laugh. It was a sound that Izuku loved. 

"Well, I'm not surprised. It's about time you leave that school anyways. But enough with the boring stuff, I have something I wanted to show you before we train and I think you're gonna absolutely love it," Shouto expressed excitedly, grabbing one of Izuku's arms and dragging him inside the house. 

Izuku followed eagerly as he got dragged through the familiar walls of Shouto's house. Shouto's mom gave him a quick wave and a small smile as they passed her. 

"So my dad's agency was talking about coming out with a new merch line with new designs for an Endeavor figurine, right?" Shouto started, a huge smile was on his face as soon as he opened the door to his room. 

Izuku eagerly nodded along, a smile started to form on his face. 

"And my dad may or may not have snuck a few prototypes for us to rate and keep," a giddy Shouto replied as he ran to his desk to grab a large box and hand it to Izuku. "There are five different versions in there and we each get our own set to keep, so this one is yours." 

"You're kidding me right?" Izuku gasped in disbelief. He could probably cry right now. 

Shouto let out a small giggle. "Fortunately for you, I am not. You can tell my dad how much you love them next time you see him." 

"I've never been so grateful to know your dad until now," Izuku choked, holding back his tears of joy. He had always been a little overly emotional to the little things, but it was just a Midoriya trait. 

“Are you grateful to know me too?” Shouto asked teasingly, but his voice still held some sincerity. 

“Of course I do!” Izuku exclaimed. “You’re one of my most favorite people next to my parents and Kacchan.” 

Shouto feigned sadness and pouted. “So you’re saying you like Katsuki more than me?” 

Izuku gave Shouto a light punch on his shoulders. “I didn’t say that. I said you were my favorite alongside Kacchan.”

“But if I heard you correctly, you said next to him, so that means you like him more.” 

This bitch. 

“You know what I meant, Shouto,” Izuku replied, giving the other boy a playful shove. 

“But do I though?” 

“Yes. Yes, you do.” 

Shouto sighed and pouted. “Maybe I do, but Katsuki better watch out for me because I’m going to be your favorite.” 

Izuku let out a small chuckle at that and looked at Shouto. He took note of things he’d never noticed before like how Shouto’s grey eye had slivers of silver specks scattered in them. It was like someone took milky way and put them in his eyes. The other eye was just as captivating. There were so many shades of turquoise that Izuku didn't even know could exist, but there was something in them that drew him in. He could drown in them forever and let it's depth draw him in. 

"You have pretty eyes," Izuku breathed almost breathlessly. 

"I know," Shouto remarked sarcastically, looking ever so stoic. 

Izuku let out an exaggerated sigh. "I'm being serious, Sho." 

"I know you are," Shouto giggled, running his hand through Izuku's hair. "I think your eyes are pretty too, especially when they sparkle when you start talking."

He felt his face start to heat up before he shoved all the warm feelings down. 

"Thank you?" Izuku replied. 

"It's not supposed to be a question, but a statement. But I think we wasted enough time, I really want to get in some good training today," Shouto stated, walking out of his room. 

"Do you have anything you want to work on?" Izuku questioned, following behind his friend. 

"I still need to work on my ice side. I'm having a hard time controlling it. I think I'm spending too much time around my dad and Touya," Shouto sulked. 

Izuku patted his shoulder. "There's nothing wrong with that, Sho. Come on, let's work on this together!" Izuku replied cheerily as they both exited the house and made their way to the training grounds. 

Somewhere else in Japan, something diabolical is being brewed. 

"Sir, I have found the boy." 

"Have you now?" The man replied, staring down his henchman. 

The henchman pulled out a thick file and placed it onto the desk. "This was all the information I could gather." 

The man opened up the file and quickly skimmed through it, before throwing it against the wall. 

"This was all you could get with the time I gave you!? Do you think my time is a joke?" The man demanded. 

The henchman tembled and nervously gulped. "No sir," he replied quietly, so much so that it could've been passed off as a whisper. "It was all that was available from his school records, his family, an-" 

The man cut him off. "Do you think I give shit about any of that? I needed information on his quirk!" The man bellowed, reaching forward and grabbing the trembling man in front of him by the collar. "I will give you another chance, but it will be your last if you fail. Bring me everything you can on his quirk." 

"Y-yes, sir. Right away. Thank you for sharing me and giving me another chance. Your generosity is all I could ever ask for," the henchman replied before slowly walking away. 

Just as he got to the door, the man spoke up. "Don't fuck it up again, understood" 

"Yes, sir."

Chapter Text

"You're getting sloppy, Izuku!" Shouto yelled from across the training field. 

As much as Izuku didn't want to admit it, Shouto was right. He was slowing down and his movements were getting sluggish and too messy for his liking. He wasn't reacting as fast to the ice attacks sent his way and almost let himself slip across the ground. It also didn't help how the air around him was getting colder and making him more sluggish. Damn, sometimes he wished he inherited his dad's fire breath instead. 

"I know I am. Just give me a minute," Izuku huffed, taking in giant breaths of air. "Just don't stop, don't worry about me, I can keep up." 

Shouto just looked at him with concern and shrugged. He knew that Izuku could handle just a bit more and he knew better than to stop him. He made an enormous trail of ice and sent it towards the other boy. 

Izuku braced himself for the attack, it was quicker than the blink of an eye, but he had always been good at reacting fast. He touched the ground below him and mimicked the ice attack being sent his way with the soil and rock from underneath him. 

The two elements colliding had automatically shattered on impact. The two boys were both knocked back a bit by the aftershock of it all and the coldness in the air still remained. Solid chunks of earth and ice were spread out everywhere and the two of them took it as a sign that they should probably stop. 

They didn't mind it anyways. They had been going at it for a few hours and the effects of quirk exhaustion were starting to show their signs. Both Shouto and Izuku liked to push themselves to their limits, but Enji had always told them to stop when they felt their quirks telling them that they should stop. In his words, "you can't be at your best if you push yourself too hard to even move." 

They had to be in their best condition, so it was time to call it a day. Of course Izuku had been a bit disappointed that they had to stop, but it would do him no good to just push himself too hard and end up getting hurt. He did come a long way since he first began his training and now he could go on for hours with his quirk without feeling the exhausting effects. He was doing good, he just had to remind himself of that. 

"Do you want water?" Shouto asked, taking a few steps closer to him. 

"Yes please!" Izuku exclaimed happily as Shouto tossed a plastic bottle at him. He took a big swig of it before continuing his next sentence. "Do you think we made progress today?" 

Shouto contemplated for a minute. "I think we did. What's your opinion on it?" 

"I think we did good. Your ice attacks got a lot more precise then before and you lasted longer with it before you started to get frozen over. I think your ice attacks are starting to get just as good as your fire. Why don't you ask your mom for help? You and her have similar ice quirks right?" Izuku questioned even though he already knew the answer. It was just for peace of mind. 

Shouto shrugged. "I've tried before. Our quirks are similar enough, but my mom doesn't have as much fine control over it like I do. I've been getting better with my dad teaching me, but he hasn't been able to much lately since there has been a rise in villain attacks. Guess All Might is beginning to slow down." 

Izuku nodded along. "Now that you mention it, I've noticed how he hasn't been showing up on the news as often. The sightings of him have been decreasing in the past few months too. Do you think it will affect this year's hero rankings?" 

"I hope it does. My father's approval rating and popularity has been going up since he solved that one high profile case against that crime ring. He's been resolving a lot of other cases too. I looked at it recently and the number of resolved cases have already passed All Might by a few hundred."

"Aren't those cases also minor too?" 

"They are, but because he's been resolving the ones that higher ranked heroes don't think are worth their time. It's been increasing his approval rating and making image look better to the public, especially since he did that one kitten charity." 

A loud giggle came from Izuku with that. "I can just imagine it now. 'Flame Hero Endeavor being soft for 15 minutes. Compilation, you won't believe what happens at the end'."

Shouto laughed, and oh did he laugh hard. His laugh made Izuku smile and his eyes sparkled brilliantly. He is like the sun. Shouto thought before he shoved it all down. Shouto's heart always did little summeraults and every smile he could draw out of Izuku was considered a victory. 

"Do you want to stay for dinner?" Shouto asked, hoping Izuku would stay with him. It was always nice when they got to spend time together. He liked hanging out with Katsuki too, but it was different with Izuku. 

Even though they had all grown up together, Shouto still liked Izuku the best. The boy had always been so kind to him and that kindness was something he would value forever. 

"Of course! Let me just call my parents to tell them first. Do you mind waiting for me? I want us to walk back together," Izuku asked, pulling his phone out of his pocket. 

Shouto nodded silently as the phone started to dial. 

Afterwards, the two boys would walk back to Shouto's house talking just about anything they could come up with. They talked almost every day, but there was never a dull conversation shared between them. Izuku would always lead the conversation while Shouto bounced off replies from what Izuku had said. It had always been the way things worked. Izuku would talk and Shouto would be there to listen. 

When the pair had finally gotten to Shouto's house (admittedly taking the longer route to spend more time together) they were greeted by the warm smiles and hugs of Shouto's mom. 

"Izuku!" She exclaimed, pulling him into a hug. "It's been so long since I've last seen you. Have you been well? Your father told us about everything that's happened in school today, and I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

"Yes, auntie. I've been doing really good lately. Today was a lot, but it's getting better thanks to my dad," Izuku replied, returning her hug. He has always loved Shouto's mom. Like no offense to auntie Mitsuki, but auntie Rei was always a lot kinder and softer much like his own mom. Despite her cold exterior and ice quirk, she had always been so warm and would be one of the adults he would come to first when everything was wrong. 

"I'm glad to hear that sweetie. Here, come and tell me more about it over dinner. You're just in time, we invited your parents over too! It's been so long since we've had family dinner together," Rei responded warmly, giving him and Shouto a gentle nudge to the small dining area. 

All of the Midoriyas and Todorokis were starting to settle down at the table as the two boys entered. That was when Hisashi caught sight of the two of them entering the room. 

"Ah! There you are my boys!" He boomed cheerily. "Here, come take a seat, I'm sure we have lots to talk about tonight," Hisashi continued in a tone that sent shivers down everyone's spines. 

Oh boy are we in for a ride. Izuku thought. This can only mean one thing...

Chapter Text

Once everyone was settled in, Enji looked at Hisashi before he began to talk. 

"I wish we could come together for dinner under different circumstances, however, it has come to my attention that a certain nephew of mine decided to lie about the type of treatment he gets at school," Enji stated, staring Izuku down. Of course, Enji had no bad intention behind it, and he would never be mad about his basically nephew having been bullied to such a degree. That definitely wasn't his fault, but he was displeased with the fact that it was hidden from almost everyone in the combined family. 

"You're not mad at me are you?" Izuku asked shyly to everyone at the table. All of them shook their heads in unison, and the boy was able to relax a little. "I just didn't think it was a big deal. Most of the kids stayed out of the way and the ones that didn't don't usually come back after the first few times." 

"But it is an issue when your teachers let them do that. It doesn't matter if it doesn't happen often, son, it still happened. I know I'm the one who suggested you go to this school in the first place since it is so close to our home, but I'd rather you go somewhere else. I know Nedzu has an extended invitation for you to learn under him at UA, but it would be best for you to take that offer when you go to UA. For now, your mom and I think it would be best to switch you to a different school." 

Izuku thought about it briefly before he said anything else. He didn't want to be an inconvenience to his parents, but there weren't many options. For one, he could continue his online courses, but then he'd be isolated. It wasn't an ideal solution to the current problem either since those extra classes were more like extracurriculars.

"But what would happen to Kacchan?" Izuku finally asked. While the Aldera wasn't ideal, he always had Kacchan with him. He couldn't just leave the boy alone, especially at that school.

"I called his parents earlier. We are going to invite them over for dinner this weekend and talk about it more. I want you to know though, son, that this choice is completely up to you and Katsuki," his dad replied, looking over at his mom. 

"What school would we transfer to?"

"Izuku, I've been looking it over with your father," Enji started, taking over the conversation. "We thought about a few options together, and I would like to present those options. First, it would be Shouto's school. His school is a lot farther than your current school since it is in the opposite direction of your house and the commute would take you longer too, but I know all of the teachers there and we could arrange something."

"What are my other options?" Izuku questioned. 

"I could get you a private tutor if you like. They could always meet with you in person or online if you prefer," Enji stated. 

Izuku quickly shut down that idea by shaking his head. "I want to interact with more kids my age, so I don't think that's a good option. Are there any more choices?" 

Enji nodded. "Yes, there is. You should know about this school because of its reputable name, it's Soumei Junior High. It's not as good as Shouto's school, but it is one of the best junior highs in Musutafu that's near you." 

"But isn't Soumei full of snobby legacy brats?" A new voice snarkily chimed in.

"Touya's not wrong dad," Shouto stated. 

Enji let out a heavy sigh. "Let me continue, boys. Soumei might be your best option right now, Izuku. They do full background checks on their teachers and other staff, and they have a very strict policy about quirk discrimination and bullying. If you decide to go here, your father and I can enroll you by Monday." 

"Isn't that nepotism?" Touya remarked with a sly look on his face.

Hisashi chuckled and ran his hand through his hair. "It's not nepotism if we aren't using our influence." 

Everyone at the table softly laughed at the casual use of what was probably going to end up being nepotism.

Then, Enji's work phone went off. The man excused himself from the table to answer it and the conversation at the table continued for several minutes before he came back. Enji's face was grim and filled with an emotion that couldn't be pegged, even by the people who knew him best.

"It's the commission. They're telling me that the mission I'm working on needs to be finished tonight," said Enji.

There was a deafening silence in the room for the next few minutes. Everyone knew what it meant, but no one wanted to mention it. However, no one understood it best like Touya. After all, he was a hero too, and when the hero commission calls, it meant something urgent. 

Surprisingly, Natsuo was the first to break the silence. "Come back safe, alright old man?" 

"I'll do my best," Enji replied gently with his eyes closed. He couldn't make that a promise.

Hero work was taxing and it was not all bright smiles and glittering victory. There was a side of it that all heroes understood, which included putting the burden of that darker side on their own families. Enji went into every dangerous mission like it was his last because it might be if he didn't take the extra caution. 

At the end of the day, he had people to protect and a home to come to. He had a wife that loved him who would give him soft reassurances every night that no matter what happens, she'll always be there to soothe his wounds out. He had four wonderful children that are his pride and joy. Enji had to make sure that he could come back to watch them grow up. Two of his kids might have been young adults, but he still has to be there for Shouto when he grows up. 

Oh, sweet baby Shouto. He was barely even a teenager and had already witnessed the darker side that came with being from a hero family. Enji needed to protect his youngest son, his baby, from the dangers of the world for just a bit longer. Shouto didn’t need to be exposed to it all especially with the mission Enji was about to leave for. 

Rei got up from the table and walked over to Enji. She gave him a firm hug, whispering into his ear, “I’ll have kuzumochi ready for you when you come home, Enji.” It was her way of asking him to come back safely. 

Enji returned her hug and held onto her for a moment taking in the way she felt between his arms. “I’ll be looking forward to it."

And with that, Enji said his final goodbyes to his kids, his best friends, and his nephew. With each of his goodbyes, he told them to live well, eat well, and to never lose hope if all things go wrong. 

With a final teary goodbye to everyone, Enji went off into the bleak and lonely night.